Clickety Click Click. Click Fraud Not as Bad as You Think

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar Search Engine Specialist

A lot of people – and we just met with one last week – avoid pay-per-click advertising campaigns because they are afraid competitors will repeatedly click through, decimating their budget.

In theory, that could happen. After all, you pay for each time somebody clicks through your ad in a search engine to your Web site. And, it’s been reported click fraud cost advertisers $800 million last year.

However, the major search engine companies say that number is wildly exaggerated. They are aware of the problem, take measures to monitor clicks and provide refunds.

I run really large campaigns on down to really small campaigns, and I keep a good watch on each. If I seem to be spending too much, or something just isn’t right, I write and ask for a refund. And I receive it. On other occasions, the search engine company has found anomalies and reimbursed me for them. And Google, Yahoo, and MSN allow only one click per IP address per day. It just doesn’t work to have somebody sit down and click, click, click.

Every month I receive a line item statement from the major search engines. There’s lots of good data – and it is expanding. Google now includes additional data on all clicks and what keywords produced them.

Click fraud does happen. But the bottom line is you have to keep your eyes on the campaign or hire somebody to do so.

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