As the number of organizations investing in digital marketing is increasing, there has been an increase in fraudsters trying to take advantage of digital marketing platforms to drain revenue from such organizations. Click fraud is an example of frauds based on digital marketing and occurs on PPC online advertizing.
Let Us Understand The PPC Concept-
PPC or Pay-Per-Click is an online advertizing campaign. An organization contacts relevant websites, bloggers, influencers, etc. to place its ad on their page to attract target audience. When a user clicks on the advertizement, he is redirected to the landing page of the advertizing website resulting in higher lead generation. The website that places the ad on its page is paid a certain amount for every user that clicks on the advertizement.
What Is Click Fraud?
A click fraud is a technique that is used to falsely increase the number of clicks on a PPC ad. In other words, a click fraud or ‘invalid clicks’ (as termed by Google) is when a paid advertizement is intentionally clicked repeatedly. Higher the number of clicks on the ad, higher is the amount paid by the advertizer to the host website (where the ad is posted). The aim of a click fraud is to either generate higher revenue for the host website or drain revenue from the advertizer. One of the common techniques employed in click frauds is the use of click bots.
What Is A Click Bot?
A bot is a software that operates on the internet and is used to perform repetitive tasks. Click bots are used by the fraudulent websites to repetitively click on advertisements posted on their website in order to increase the number of clicks.
How Does Click Fraud Impact The Advertizer?
A click fraud impacts an advertizer in numerous ways:
- It costs an advertizer higher PPC cost.
- It drains a business of investment money that could be used for other business development tasks.
- It results in inaccurate results from PPC campaign data analysis leading to misinformed critical marketing decisions.
How To Fight Against Click Fraud?
- It is common for competitors to launch click fraud attacks to impact each other’s marketing campaign. In order to avoid this, search Google for keywords relevant to your niche and identify your competitors. After identifying the major competitors, use tools like ClickForensics, AdWatcher or ClickDefense fraudulent ad clicks.
- Closely monitor your campaigns using different tools. It will give you a fair idea of how the campaign is performing in relevance to your campaign goals.
- Some websites may offer low PPC rates; however be vigilant to choose high-value sites. Thoroughly research the websites to find a relevant & suitable site that is full of potential customers.
- Employ bot management to identify fraud bots and block them from an application/website.
- You can also invest in fraud prevention software that are specifically designed to spot and avoid click frauds.
For more information on Ads management and click-fraud prevention, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.