#PPCfraud

CLICK FRAUD

PROTECT YOURSELF!

TRADA PRESENTS

trada.com#PPCfraud

Anna Sawyer, Marketing Manager@annafsawyer

Matt Hessler, Director of Account Management

@fasterstill

What is click fraud?

Matt Hessler: @fasterstill www.trada.com/blog Anna Sawyer: @annafsawyer

When a person, automated script or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link.

Fraud: intentionally malicious, to make someone else money or to deplete an advertiser’s budget at an accelerated rate.

Fraud vs. unwanted clicks

Unwanted clicks: duplicate clicks from shopping comparison, ad network errors, internal or competitor clicks on a small scale.

Fraud vs. unwanted clicks

When a second-tier publisher - like a blog or website with display ads on it - tries to increase its cut of the profits by generating fraudulent clicks.

Network click fraud

If the Denver Egotist clicked on or hired someone to click on their display or text ads, that would be network click fraud, and the Egotist would be the beneficiary, since they get paid each time an ad is clicked.

(Not that we’re implicating the Egotist! This is just an example!)

Matt Hessler: @fasterstill www.trada.com/blog Anna Sawyer: @annafsawyer

The intent is to deplete a competitor's click budget in PPC, display or Facebook ads.

Competitor click fraud

If flowerdeliveryexpress.com wanted to beat bloomstoday.com on the day before Valentine’s Day, they could hire a company to fraudulently deplete bloomstoday.com’s daily budget, and would then dominate the first position on that important day.

How you’re protected

Matt Hessler: @fasterstill www.trada.com/blog Anna Sawyer: @annafsawyer

Major search networks have many mechanisms in place to protect you from click fraud by detecting it before you ever see your reports.

To see your invalid clicks, choose Columns in your campaign tab, and add Invalid Clicks and Invalid Click Rate. This will show you everything Google has filtered out before billing you.

MYTH: Search networks benefit from click fraud.

How can you detect click fraud or invalid clicks that the

search network missed?

Matt Hessler: @fasterstill www.trada.com/blog Anna Sawyer: @annafsawyer

Keep an eye on your reports for the following fishy activity.

Fishy: Sudden increase/decrease in click count, followed by a sustained aberrant click count.

Fishy: Spikes in otherwise consistent click rates.

Fishy: Sudden jump in click-through rate for a single keyword.

Fishy: Significant differences in click volume for similar terms, such as 3x clicks on “Buy scuba gear” and “scuba gear sale”.

Fishy: Unusually high click-through rate on content ads (which typically don’t perform as well as search ads).

Fishy: Many clicks from a single IP address or an address outside your geotargeted areas.

Now what?

Matt Hessler: @fasterstill www.trada.com/blog Anna Sawyer: @annafsawyer

Get as much information as possible, including dates, times and IP addresses.

Note on IP addresses: Due to user privacy concerns, Google Analytics doesn't report on personally identifiable information, including a visitor's IP address. Instead, Google Analytics provides aggregated data to help you make informed business decisions. You can view the Map Overlay report (under the Visitors section) to look at aggregated geographical data about your visitors, or view the Network Location report (under Visitors > Network Properties) to see your visitors' ISP locations.

Then, fill out the Invalid Clicks Contact Form from Google, or contact support if you are using AdCenter.

AdWords IP Exclusion:If you can narrow the invalid clicks down to a specific IP address, you can exclude your ads from being shown to that IP. (You can find this under Networks >> Exclusions.)

Click fraud accounts for a formidable percent of total clicks - but much of it happens before you ever get charged.

Still, vigilance is the best way to be protected from unwanted clicks that

may slip through the networks’ fingers.

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Wednesday, Jan 18

TRADA PRESENTS

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Here’s where we take two minutes to show you how Trada can help you with

online advertising...

... and it doesn’t cost any more than if you were to run PPC or Facebook ads campaigns

yourself.

Trada has thousands of online advertising experts who do PPC and Facebook ads for you.

Multiple experts work on your campaign at

the same time.

You get:

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SpiritHoods: Trada customers since

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SpiritHoods: Trada customers since

Nov. 2010

CAMPAIGN STATS:

Paid Search Experts: 15

Sales Revenue: 400% increase

# of Conversions: 400% increase

CPC: 58% improvement

SpiritHoods: Trada customers since

Nov. 2010

“My favorite part of the Trada relationship is that

search no longer rules my life. The success of the

campaigns has allowed me to hire a staff member to manage marketing so I can

focus on new designs.”

– Alexander Menduluk Owner, SpiritHoods

For more information or to schedule a Trada demo, email sfox@trada.com

trada.com

@annafsawyer

Time for questions!

@fasterstill

InternetAds Update

Love Trada’s content? Anna and Matt release a weekly-ish fast-paced podcast with practical tips for

understanding and capitalizing on current trends in online advertising. Search for Trada in the iTunes

store and subscribe! It’s free!

For more information or to schedule a Trada demo, email sfox@trada.com

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@annafsawyer

Time for questions!

@fasterstill