It's probably
safe to say that pay per click advertisers are going to have
to accept a certain level of click fraud as just a cost of
doing business.
Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click
advertising business. Many people with an online business
spend large amounts of money on pay per click advertising
only to discover that many of the people clicking on their
ads weren't really interested in their products or services.
Bogus "visitors" to a pay per click ad represent click
fraud. This is a serious scam that threatens the viability
of the pay
per click advertising business which has become enormously
profitable for all of the major search engine operators,
namely Google, Yahoo/Overture, and MSN.
Click fraud has different forms, but the end result is
generally the same. Advertisers are billed for fruitless
traffic
generated by someone who repeatedly clicks on an
advertiser's ad without any intention of ever buying
anything.
The search engine advertising market is currently about $3.8
billion per year and estimates vary widely on how much click
fraud is actually going on. Clearly, the search engine
operators would like to downplay the extent of this problem.
Some industry experts claim that a little click fraud exists
but that it is overblown by advertiser paranoia, while
others estimate that ten to twenty percent of all clicks are
false (made by someone with no legitimate interest in the ad
itself).
Virtually everyone involved with pay per click advertising
sees click fraud and knows it's there, but no one is quite
sure what to do about it.
Both Google and Yahoo/Overture acknowledge that the click
fraud problem exists, but claim improved internal controls
will prevent the problem from escalating. Their stated
position seems to be that they are concerned about click
fraud, but that it is not a material issue so far. Both of
them are touting their increasing internal actions aimed at
detecting and combating click fraud.
Such reassurances from search engine companies certainly
aren't surprising, given how much they stand to lose if
advertisers cut back on advertising spending. The stakes are
huge and the search engine companies are actively involved
in public relations campaigns. Industry research firm
eMarketer expects $7.4 billion to be spent on search
engine advertising by 2008, up from only $108.5 million back
in 2000.
The incentives for click fraud have increased along with the
money devoted to search engine advertising. Advertising on
search engines has turned into a fast-spreading craze as
more and more marketers have realized substantially higher
returns on search engine ads than on more traditional
marketing campaigns conducted through print media.
Most pay per click advertisers set a spending limit and once
the spending limit is reached, the ads cease to appear in
the search results. Click fraud is a very unethical
competitive tactic where someone repeatedly clicks on a
competitor's ad until the spending limit is reached and the
ad then disappears from the search results. It seems that
it's only a matter of time before some advertisers become so
exasperated with click fraud that they file a class-action
lawsuit against a major search engine.
The success of search engine advertising has substantially
raised prices that advertisers pay for top spots.
Unfortunately, these higher prices have turned click fraud
into a dark little industry of its own. Some crooks have
hired cheap overseas contractors to just sit in front of
computers and constantly click on targeted ads and others
are developing sophisticated software to help automate and
conceal click fraud.
If you use pay per click advertising it would be wise to
carefully monitor your traffic to determine if you are the
victim
of click fraud. In any event, it's probably safe to say that
pay per click advertisers are going to have to accept a
certain level of click fraud as just a cost of doing
business.
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Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based
business and also coaches others seeking to start their own
home based business. For more information visit his website
at
Legitimate Home Based Business
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