Hi,
I hope you find this helpful!
I got this from:
http://www.conqueryourniche.com/forum/jlamure
Wikipedia's definition of click-fraud:
"Click fraud occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy... due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud whether they like it or not."
Reading the Signs
Signs of Click-Fraud:
Your conversion rate is not logical for your website's offer: too few sales or perhaps no sales at all.
Your PPC costs are rising while your sales either remain flat or under-perform.
The required minimum bid on your best-performing keywords steadily increases over time.
Your competitors are visible alongside your own advertisements, and you suspect that they or those who dislike your program are working to create additional costs for you by clicking on your adverts frequently - or getting others to do so.
Your clicks dramatically increase at a certain time each day, but your clicks-to-sales rate drops (more clicks with less turnover).
Identifying Fraudulent Clicks
Regardless of what you advertise, your business will face some level of click-fraud, especially when you advertise through major PPC services such as Yahoo! and Google. These click-fraud costs become exponential over time.
Every dollar you lose to click-fraud is one dollar you could have re-invested in a new PPC campaign. And if you continue to receive more fraudulent clicks over time, then those dollars add up quickly and significantly... leading to fewer PPC campaigns.
By losing campaign runs, you can quickly face an exponential loss in profitability.
Many advertisers think of click-fraud in linear terms instead of thinking in terms of exponential losses over an extended period of time.
If most PPC advertisers identified the level of click-fraud affecting their advertising campaigns, they would be shocked to realise that their campaign costs are far more than they would have expected.
There are advertisers who are already aware of the extensive and chronic problem of click-fraud. However, they face one vital issue: How can they identify the full extent of their click-fraud costs?
Not being able to identify fraudulent clicks makes it impossible to request refunds from major PPC services such as Yahoo! and Google.
If you would like to develop a clear perspective on how a minimal level of click-fraud can have major adverse effects on the profitability of your PPC advertising campaigns, you can create a range of click-fraud scenarios, using this online interactive Click-Fraud Calculator.
Advertisers who already understand this principle still face two vital issues:
a) How can they identify their click-fraud costs?
b) Once identified, how do they successfully present their argument to their PPC Service Providers (Google, Yahoo, etc) for refunds to their click budgets?
PPC Service Providers are not interested in providing refunds whenever they can avoid it, so you have to "set the stage properly" when you present your refund requests.
3 MAINSTREAM SOURCES OF CLICK-FRAUD TO DEFEAT
1) Webcrawlers/Spiders/Robots: software that anyone can buy, designed to swiftly comb through pages and pages of Google listings and other services, often by industry. This is a growing business.
Those searches usually lead to clicks on your AdWords and other PPC ads... currently amounting to a whopping 20% to 50% of average campaign budget costs - your costs!
2) Websites displaying your ads through the 'Content Network' and related ad-hosting options: Many website owners host your ads, and get paid when their visitors click on your ads. The commissions actually come directly from the price you pay for each click. Often, the website owners and close partners find ways to click on your ads themselves... over and over again. The worst issues are for less-industrialized countries, where a little earnings can go a long way. Many of them do not even speak English... but click on your ad anyway, for the commissions.
Many advertisers make the mistake of severly limiting their ad exposure on websites hosting related content. Limiting your exposure is sensible... to a degree. However, there are several work-arounds allowing you to let your ads be hosted on websites and still limit your fraud.
3) Competitors who click on your ads often, in order to deplete your daily ad budgets. Particularly if you are using the same keywords for your advertisements that they are using. There are very many ways to catch competitors in the act. Though catching all click fraud issues is very difficult- perhaps even impossible, catching even just a few percent of your click-fraud costs can develop many multiples of percentage points (often many thousands of dollars) over your current profitability. If you are serious about your PPC advertisement campaigns, you can expect to see a dramatic increase in profitability without changing your routine - simply by identifying and being refunded for ongoing click-fraud costs to your campaign. Regardless of what you advertise, you face some level of click-fraud. Whether you advertise through PPC solutions such as Google or Yahoo! aggressively or moderately, these costs become exponential over time.
Simply put - for every dollar you lose to click-fraud, that is one less dollar you have to reinvest in new PPC exposure. And if your continued exposure includes more fraudulent costs, then those dollars add up significantly... leading to fewer total campaign runs. By losing campaign runs, you can quickly face an absolutely exponential loss of profitability.
You should probably be making far more money without doing anything differently except for simply identifying and recovering your lost credits on a consistent basis.
If you are serious about your PPC advertisement campaigns, you can expect to see a dramatic increase in profitability without changing your routine - simply by identifying and being refunded for ongoing click-fraud costs to your campaign.
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