![]() |
|
| >> Web Hosting Geeks // Web Hosting Articles // PPC Advertising |
|
|
Pay-Per-Click Fraud Exposed--Part II
According to Andy Jones, a member of the Best Practices Search Engine Forums, fraudulent clicks are just another aspect of the business. "Any of us that use AdWords or any other PPC has to pay for a certain percentage of fraudulent clicks," he said in a forum discussion. "I factor it in as a cost of doing business." Can you believe that? In other words, he's saying, I know the pay-per-click companies are stealing my money, but it's okay, because I've considered that fact ahead of time. Unfortunately, that mentality is pervasive among pay-per-click advertisers. No wonder the pay-per-click companies aren't making stopping pay-per-click fraud a top priority. Who can blame them? If their advertisers don't care, why should they? Heck, with all of the money the pay-per-click companies are making, it's actually more cost effective to issue an occasional refund, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud. And if you read between the lines of the following statement, Google even admitted as much: In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, "We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members." That statement doesn't exactly instill any confidence, now does it? And if Overture is asked about click fraud, they'll just issue their standard company line: "Our Click Protection System is sophisticated software that evaluates each of our advertisers' clicks. This software makes decisions as to the validity of any click. Our Click Protection System uses search and click data to make both rules-based inferences and pattern recognition-based inferences about which clicks are valid clicks. We have two patents pending related to this technology, so we cannot currently disclose too many details about the methods we use." Do you honestly think newspaper, magazine, radio or tv advertisers would just sit back and let those media get away with blatantly stealing their money? You know they wouldn't. Then why do pay-per-click advertisers allow it? I don't know the exact answer to that question, but I have my theories: First of all, you're talking about a whole different level of sophistication with pay-per-click advertisers, compared to media advertisers. Many pay-per-click advertisers don't even know how to access or even analyze their log files, so they have no idea how much money is actually being stolen from them. In addition, some pay-per-click advertisers are making more money than they've ever made before. And rather than upset the apple cart, they'd rather keep quiet and allow the vicious cycle of click fraud to continue, so that they can keep cashing those big checks. I also suspect many advertisers are afraid that if they complain too loudly, they may be penalized in the search engines, in regard to their free listings. If my theories are accurate, silence is one heck of a trade off, if you ask me. Why? Because according to a report on MediaPost, an online study done by Clicklab revealed that fraudulent clicks can account for more than 50 percent of your total clicks. So, if the goal of pay-per-click search engines is to bring lucrative, targeted traffic to your web site, what are the pay-per-click search engines doing about the click fraud epidemic, to prevent abuse that needlessly drive up your costs and reduce your ROI? Unfortunately, since so many pay-per-click advertisers are willing to play the role of "lambs going to slaughter," the pay-per-click companies really don't have to do anything. In the meantime, your ROI is going to continue to plummet, and the pay-per-click companies are going to continue to milk those cash cows (AKA) pay-per-click advertisers, for all they're worth! About The Author Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net. Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Find Your Own Valuable Adsense Keywords For Free There's tons of money to be made from the Google Adsense program for web masters and blog owners. That's why "the vultures are circling" and folks are getting sucked in with all sorts of offers that promise instant high Adsense revenue. How to Make More Money with Google AdSense Like any Google AdSense Publisher, you will want to increase your Google AdSense revenue. Your AdSense revenue depends on 3 factors: (1) the number of visitors to your site, (2) the number of visitor that clicks on the ads (Click Through Rate, or CTR), and (3) how well the ads pay (Cost Per Click, CPC). Maximise Your AdSense Earnings As a blog or site owner, you can make some cash with Google's AdSense pretty easily. To maximise your potential earnings, here are some tips that may help you: 1. Google Adwords Guide I You probably have already heard about the new marketing tool from Google.com on the Internet. Preliminary Survival Steps for Adwords Success What I find is a lot of marketers do have a great set of keywords, they have a great product to promote (whether it's their own or someone elses), BUT, they go and ruin it all by structuring their campaign all wrong.What I mean by structure is the preliminary stages you should go through to set up targeted ad groups that work WITH the ad. Googles AdSense Soon To Have New Rival? A large part of Google's multi-billion dollar annual turnover comes from its nifty AdSense advertising program. The software enables website owners to drop in a piece of code to their pages that then serves advertisements provided by Google. How to Save Money on the Adwords Network Over the years I have had many accounts with Adwords, spending a small fortune with the Adwords service. So naturally I have picked up many cost saving tricks. MSN PPC Advertising Behavioral and Demographic Targeting: Killer App. or Achilles Heel? Examining the failures of the web content design of many enormous consumer corporations.When you think of the world's most successful businesses, what names come to mind? Most likely, consumer-oriented giants such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Sheraton, Disney, IBM, General Electric, and IBM. How To Get Banned From Google Adsense In Just 2 Clicks The darkest nightmare a hardworking affiliate webmaster fears is receiving a dreaded Google Adsense Warning, or even worse, a notice that Google Adsense has been disabled for the entire account.The notice starts out like this:"It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the ads on your web pages. Find Powerful Keyword Phrases in Five Easy Steps! You may not realize it, but in the next few minutes you are going to learn one of the three most important steps to a successful pay-per-click campaign. That is, how do we find powerful keyword phrases in five easy steps? And the best of all, these steps are absolutely free!As a start, you should focus on finding keyword phrases versus individual keywords. Paying for Website Visitors: The Allure of PPC for Small Biz Owners There are good reasons why many webmasters and website owners choose to pay for visitors to their website as opposed to the involved and often grueling method of search engine optimization. Improper SEO may not only waste time and resources, there is never a guarantee that what your site is optimized for will result in actual sales or conversions. How to Master Google AdWords - Part 2 4. Write an attractive ad - you have a very limited space to write your ad so you need to make each word count if you want your visitors to click through to your web site or landing page. When Adsense Makes No Sense: Knowing When Not To Use The Google Adsense Pay-Per-Click Program Google's AdSense program is a proven money-maker that has enriched the pockets of many website owners. Unlike many pay-per-click systems, the AdSense program has a large pool of advertisements to draw from -- the ads come from Google's AdWords program, which you can think of as the flipside of AdSense -- which almost guarantees that AdSense can find relevant advertisements to display alongside a site's content. Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Online Business: Pay for Inclusion vs Pay per Click Back in the old days of the Internet - in 1993, - there were 284 locations on the entire World Wide Web. According to Bill Clinton, only 8 of them ended in . Google Sued Over Click Fraud in Adwords On June 24, 2005, a lawsuit was filed against Google for alleged click fraud on the Adwords pay-per-click program. The Plaintiff, Click Defense, claims Google failed to enact appropriate measures to guard against fraudulent clicks resulting in unwarranted marketing fees. Expand Your Horizons - Sell Your Professional Services Through ClickBank ClickBank allows its merchants to sell many different types of digital products, but with the proviso that they must be deliverable entirely over the internet within 24 hours of purchase.Most merchants focus on downloadable products (especially ebooks and software applications), although ClickBank can equally be used to sell digital content delivered by email or via membership websites and other online communities. ClickBank Refunds - Hope for the Best but Prepare for the Worst When we launch a new product, we all hope it's going to be a runaway bestseller. More than that, most of us aim to produce a product so remarkable that it generates rave reviews and achieves cult popularity. Success with Adwords Google's Adwords service has brought success to many businesses by providing them with a large amountl of highly targeted traffic from as little as 2 cents per visitor. However, there is probably an equal number of webmasters who have paid for adwords and seen little benefit or have indeed made substantial losses. Who Else Wants To Maximize Their Google Adwords Success? Who Else Wants To Maximize Their Google Adwords Success? Discover Three Simple But Incredibly Powerful Strategies That You Can Implement Right Now About The One Thing You Must Do To Ensure An Awesome Adwords ROI! By Mark Meyers If you are not familiar with Using Google Adwords, please check out my getting started article here:http://www.Internet-Income-Advisor. 5 Critical Pay-Per-Click Tips Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a good supplement to natural search engine optimization, IF you keep a few tactics straight.1. |
|
|
|
|
| © 2004 - 2008 "Web Hosting Geeks" | Web Hosting Reviews | Customer Reviews | RealMetrics Reviews | Hosting Articles | Directory | Partners | Contacts Over 7000 articles: web hosting, web development, domain names, ecommerce, web design, site promotion, ppc advertising, seo, site promotion and many others. Web hosting reviews, ratings and awards are not based on any incentives or commissions. Names and trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. A direct link to Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com) must be provided in order to use any of the above information. Contact us for more info. Partners: Hosts by speed, Cheap Website Hosting, Free Website Hosting, Cheap Web Hosting, Top 10 Web Hosts, Top 10 Web Hosting Deals, Best Website Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Free Web Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, Adult Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discussions, Dedicated Server Reviews, Best Web Hosting, Web Hosting Discounts, HostProfessor.com, rsuog, halyava, PHP Website Hosting Services, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Uptime, Best Web Hosting Reviews, Cheap Webhosting, Web Hosting, Flash Templates, CMS Templates, Web Hosting Reviews, Website Hosting Reviews, Web Hosting Providers, Best Web Hosting, Top Web Hosting, RSUOG Web Hosting |