:: Volume 6, Issue 8 - September, 2006 ::

Thank You for Your Interest in Empowering Your Business on the Web
And thank you for your interest in receiving this newsletter.

4 Steps to Avoiding Click-Fraud

If you have something worth taking, it is inevitable that someone will try to take it. Or break it. Or just generally foul it up.

CLICK FRAUD is defined as the act of purposely clicking ad listings without intending to buy from the advertiser (usually in reference to Pay-Per-Click Advertising or "PPC").

But why would someone do this, and how does costing an advertiser (you or me) money through false clicks benefit the person running the scam?

Quick Review: a PPC campaign has a set budget for clicks on their ads. When the budget is reached, the ad stops running. If your budget is $50 per day and each click costs you 50 cents, then after 100 clicks, your campaign is done for the day and your ad comes off, making room for cheaper ads lower down the list.

So, it benefits the owners of the cheaper ads when you get your 100 clicks and your ad comes off the list for the remainder of the day because then their ad moves up. Someone who bids 5 cents per click would improve their position on the list of Sponsored Links every time a competitor above them came off; and an advertiser who could find a way to mechanically and/or physically click their competitors off the list would eliminate the competition for the day and hopefully increase their own sales through better ad positioning (at a lower cost). So, they could bid low, click you off, and move up to take your place. That's one reason for Click Fraud.

The second benefit to the Click Fraudster comes when they run AdSense ads on their own site. Sites that run AdSense ads make money every time a visitor clicks a PPC ad on their site, so fraudulent clicks add to the site owner's income by increasing the number of clicks.

But with all the hype on the Internet right now about Click Fraud, I am once against stunned by the general attitudes of people relating to the Internet.

"Fraud on the internet?! How terrible! How could they? How can we stop them?!"

The first point that needs to be made here is that we're talking about advertising. Fraud will happen! You can't stop it! Learn to limit what you can, and learn to live with the rest!

In traditional advertising, the price you pay for your ad in a publication is determined by the distribution of the publication. When the Ad Executive tells you that the publication is distributed to, or has a readership of, one million people, you have no option really than to believe them.

Do you really believe that every store completely sells out of each issue of every publication? Is it not more likely that a certain percentage of publications are returned? Would it not make sense that the number of readers quoted is not REALLY correct?

Obviously it is not in the publisher's best interest to blatantly lie or over-inflate the numbers. If they get caught, the bad press would seriously impact their ability to bring future advertisers onboard, so why shoot themselves in the foot?

Similarly, it's not in Google, Yahoo, or MSN's best interests to ignore click-fraud. All the major PPC engines have fraud detection and prevention systems in place. Have trust in these players.

There are a few things you can do to keep an eye out, and potentially limit your chance of being on the receiving end of click-fraud:

1. Keep an eye on your daily budget. If it is regularly exceeded, you need to pay closer attention. If you're not exceeding your daily budget, then you're not getting a lot of clicks and therefore not being defrauded.
2. Try to localize your advertising geographically. The smaller your target and budget for each campaign, the less the chance of you becoming a fraud target (this means more human work, so be sure not to invest more effort than the potential risk saving can be).
3. Use a click-fraud detection service such as whosclickingwho.com, if your PPC monthly investment is significant enough. Although it is not possible to prevent fraud, it can often be detected, and when reported to the major engines, can sometimes lead to a refund.
4. Use Day-Parting whenever possible. Simplified, day-parting is just running your ads at the times you think your prospects are most likely to see them. Use day-parting, because there's no sense paying for clicks at 1AM if your target market is sleeping at that time.

Did You Know...

So, now that you're educated and ready to take arms against the sea of Click Fraudsters, did you know that Globi Web Solutions specializes in Day-Parting? In fact, Globi had this practice actually automated within Google before Google even made the option available. This means more experience in what Day-Parting can do in Google than pretty much any other web marketer. So take advantage of it real life experience!

Call Toll Free at 1-866-569-7728

To learn more about Day-Partings split marketing opportunities.

You may be quite surprised how you can profile your customers according to time of day, and how effective marketing to each type of customer can be hugely more effective than 24-hour blanket marketing to everyone.

Hey - share the Wealth!

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Until next month, we remain your humble messenger to the internet.

Globi Web Solutions
1023 - 12th Ave SW
Calgary, Alberta, T2R 0J5
Phone: (403) 229-3800
E-mail: admin@globi.ca
Web Site: http://www.globi.ca

Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions. All Rights Reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part without the inclusion of Globi Web Solutions' Reprint Permission below.

Reprint Permission

Although this material is subject to copyright, please feel free to reprint this publication, in whole or in part, in your company publication, in training, presentations, or wherever you feel this would be of benefit. This also holds true for members of the media. All we ask (actually, we insist) is that you use the following credit line:

Reprinted with permission from Globi Web Solutions, a leading Website Design and Development Company based in Calgary. For further resources and information, go to globi.ca. Copyright © 2010 Globi Web Solutions.