Click Fraud: Can It Happen To You?
By
Vinai Prakash
Like most businesses, when I was introduced to Google's
Pay-per-Click advertisement program called Google Adwords,
I was overjoyed. No more advertising in costly magazines
and journals which hardly generate any leads. Here I only
pay when someone is eagerly and actively looking for my
product or service.
Too good to be true... only pay for
leads that click on your ad. So my ad can show for thousands
of impressions a day, but I only pay for the handful of
people who click on it and visit my web site.
And it was good too, because my business started getting
leads that were hot - literally as soon as I started the
ads. So I was happy... and I increased my daily budget
on Google and increased my cost-per-click, so that my ad
could rank higher up on the search result pages.
Clicks Galore...
And I naturally started getting more hits from this extra
exposure. Getting 10-20 clicks and ever 40 clicks a day
became the norm. My spending with Google also skyrocketed.
As I became happier, I became complacent too... as long
as I was getting more visitors to my site, I wasn't complaining...
Until I got my latest invoice from Google. Boy, I was
jolted right out of my seat. It seemed that Google had
maxed out my daily budget times the 31 days in the month.
I had got new business from Google, but I didn't know I
was getting this many visitors from my ad campaign.
A quick look at my Google AdWords campaign showed me a
huge number of clicks over the past several days and weeks.
The number wasn't 20 or 30 clicks anymore. It was in hundreds
of clicks a day. Funny, I hadn't received so many quotation
requests or emails from people joining our eMarketing Ideas
Newsletter or commenting on our blog. Something funny was
going on...
Content Targeted Ads Can Blow a Hole
Upon careful investigation, I found that people searching
for my SEO & Email Marketing services had remained
steady on Google. It was the Content Targeted ads that
were blowing the hole in my budget. Everyday, I was getting
close to 100s clicks on the content network.
Curious to know where these clicks were coming from, I
started playing with the Google Adwords reports, looking
for a way to find out where my ads show on the content
network.
Google Ad Placement Reports
Good for me, as Google had recently introduced a new report
called the Ad Placement Report, which shows where the
ads are displaying on the content network. I ran the
report for a month, and Wah! What did I find...
Click to read
the full story of how I was a victim of Click Fraud, and the steps I took to get my money. More
important, what are the lessons learnt...
Beware of Click Fraud.
Do keep checking using the reports
I mentioned, and apply the lessons learnt I mentioned
and your money won't go to waste. If you need help, we
are always here. If you have questions or comments,
you can post
them on our blog too.
To your success...
Vinai Prakash
Managing Director, Brand Rich Marketing.
PS: We are changing our
email vendor. If you want to continue to receive the
eMarketing Ideas Newsletter, please visit the newsletter
subscription page and update your particulars.