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Pay Per Click Advertising - Click fraud tools and information

Unlike advertising in traditional media such as billboards and print publications, "cost per click" Internet ads displayed with specific keyword searches have been promoted as a definitive way for companies to gauge their exposure to potential customers.

Google, Overture, FindWhat, Search123 and Kanoodle, all offer PPC campaigns in which you pay only when someone clicks through your banner ad or link. But PPC also has an enemy--click fraud--and understanding what it is and what to do about it should also be a key part of your PPC campaign.

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud happens in both an automated and human way. The most common method is the use of online robots, or "bots," programmed to click on advertisers' links that are displayed on Web sites or listed in search queries.

Who's Doing it and Why?

Click fraud perpetrators are most often motivated by trying to increase revenues from affiliate networks or attempting to damage competitors' revenues by forcing them to pay for worthless clicks.

Those engaged in click fraud use a variety of techniques to generate false clicks. Low cost international workers from all over the world are hired to locate and click on ads. The Times of India provided investigative reporting on payment for manual click fraud happening in India. Unethical companies may pay their own employees to click on competitor ads.

Last but not least, click fraud can be generated by online robots programmed to click on advertiser or affiliate ads while spoofing IP addresses in order to fleece their advertisers and avoid detection. Then there's the competitors who do similar things - not to build revenue for themselves, but to drive other advertisers out of PPC listings and at times, out of business.

How Can You Monitor and Prevent It?
At the most basic level, advertisers can use general auditing many have been known to compile lists of sites that generate high numbers of clicks but not sales. This will indeed put up a red flag.

Click fraud is a big problem in search engine marketing that's only going to get bigger in the future. It is wise for any online advertiser to implement some auditing system

Anti PPC Fraud Tips and practices to avoid the problem:

• Avoid PPC networks that allow incentive sites - The please click this or review our advertiser to receive a "free" ..., these types of networks typically deliver poor ROI. and sales

• Caps on click frequency - Ask the PPC network if they have a A frequency cap or filter. This is a set of rules that will prevent duplicate clicks originating from the same IP from being deducted from your balance.

• Set a daily spend limit - In many PPC campaigns you can set a daily spend amount per day don't leave the wallet open. After initial launch monitor your sales then bump it up slowly and monitor, monitor monitor. if your sales drop as your spend increases, this is a red flag.

• Employ Click Fraud Tools- These tools can help you analyze your campaigns, notify you of repeatiitive clickers and track the IP's from which they came. These tools can help you save money and time. ( see below for a list of tools)

Pay Per Click Tracking Tools

WhosClickingWho.com - This fraud detector tracks all PPC search engines, detects multiple IP's, and even pops up a "ClickMinder" after a potential abuser clicks repeatedly over five times.

ClickDetective - ClickDetective allows you to track return visitors to your site and alerts you if there is evidence that your site may be under attack. Its reports show you every click in real time rather than a summary hours later.

Click Sentinel- Helps advertisers determine competitor IP addresses, click volume, checks against fraudulent IP list, , proxy, machine type and more. It also provides refund request from's for you to send, and email alerts

Clicklab - Clicklab employs a score-based click fraud detection system that applies a series of tests to each visitor session and assigns scores. Calculations are made to indicate bad/good sessions to show an advertiser the quality of traffic.

HitsLink Enterprise-Site Stats, & keyword analytics and included in their service is click fraud detection. It reviews repeat visits from individual visitors from pay-per-click programs and provides such information as the number of clicks per IP address, the domain of the visitor, the number of pages per visitor search terms and campaign sources, according to Net Applications, user's can also set up e-mail alerts and notifications for when thresholds of possible click fraud are reached.