Paying for your advertisements only when their clicked on seems like a pretty good deal right? You don’t have to pay someone unless people actually view and click on it. Although it seems like a good deal, there are now bots on the web to consider. If these bots are clicking on your ads then you end up paying for clicks that aren’t real people. Aka. No real views. Basically, you’re wasting your money if “click fraud” happens to you! 36% of display ads are fraudulent clicks (Lunio, 2021). As we said, PPC is a standard advertising system where advertisers pay only when their ads are clicked on. The most common being Google Ads. The process is simple where advertisers begin by signing up for an account with a platform, create their ad and set the max cost they are willing to pay per click. Then, the ad goes into an auction with others are bidding on the same keywords. The auction will then determine the order in which ads are shown on the search. Finally, the advertisers pay when the ad is clicked on. So, why does click fraud happen and how? Well, it typically happens on large scale and have multiple motivations. Sometimes companies will use it for their competitors to hurt them financially and some websites will do it for their own financial gain. Other reasons can include more clicks to increase likes or make websites appear higher in search rankings. However, the first does not pertain to this article. In 2018 advertisers were estimated to have lost $19 billion due to click fraud, according to Forbes. There is no 100% guaranteed way to avoid click fraud but we have a couple of ideas that can reduce risks if PPC is something you’re thinking about investing in.
1. Set different bid prices. Only use website that will give you the best potential results and limit how much you’re willing to spend per click.
2. Track your competitors. As we said above, your competitors can be someone who commit click fraud so keep an eye on them. You can do this with website that provide free tracking reports, such as Click Defense and Ad Watcher.
3. Monitor your PPC campaign. Google has analytics that allow you to track your campaign performance. Use this to see percentage of clicks that Google shows as potentially fraudulent or invalid.
4. Be concise with your geography. Stick with one area for your PPC campaign. Some areas of the world have higher risk so try to avoid those countries.
5. Stick to high quality websites. Low-quality sites are places of high bot traffic. And honestly, don’t you want your brand on a top-notch site anyway? This one should be a given.
These are some risk management tips and there are some automated detection programs that will detect and mitigate click fraud from happening. These detect bots by flagging the user who just clicks on the ad and nothing else. Some of these include Shield, Click GUARD, Opticks to name just a few. In summary, if PPC is something your brand is thinking of investing in, make sure that you have a solid game plan in place in order to remain safe from click fraud. It can be a useful tool for advertising that keeps your costs low if done correctly.
