Pay Per Click Advertisers Turning to Auditing Services to Save Money and Time

(2004-12-20) Dwight Stickler

As more and more stories surface of Pay Per Click Fraud running rampant online, advertisers are turning to auditing services to make sure their advertising budgets are not used up by competitors and internet criminals.

According to Dean Phillips, a well-known Internet Marketing Expert, " Click fraud is a scheme that takes advantage of online advertising programs like those offered by Google, Yahoo/Overture, Findwhat and others."

Phillips also reported in a recent article, "Click fraud hurts advertisers by driving up the cost of each click because many online advertising programs adjust the price of each click based on the popularity of a particular keyword and the number of competing advertisers"

In a recent filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google acknowledged, "We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members."

Patrick Giordani, senior manager of loss prevention and analytics for Overture recently reported in an email, ""Click-through protection is a key priority for Overture and we believe we have the most sophisticated system in the industry for identifying and filtering these types of clicks."

Giordani added, ""Overture uses a combination of proprietary systems and click protection technologies. Additionally, we have a dedicated team that consistently monitors clicks, updates our systems and technologies and works directly with our advertisers to protect the integrity of our marketplace."

There can be no doubt that if you are using PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising to promote your website, products, or services, you are at risk of losing money either to competitors clicking on your ads over and over again to deplete your account, or by fraudulent website operators who set up websites specifically for the purpose of stealing ad revenue from the major PPC Service Providers.

As these stories have continued to surface online a new business niche is developing to combat this activity. PPC auditing uses web based and server based technology along with sophisticated algorithms to detect and stop click fraud activities before they can do any extensive damage.

Although there is some validity to the notion that the PPC Providers carry the bulk of the responsibility for deterring and stopping this sort of activity, the bottom line is that if you are using PPC Services, it is ultimately your responsibility to manage your accounts. This includes auditing and analyzing your web traffic logs for suspicious activity and reporting it.

Of course, if you are not able to commit to such activities or you do not have the technical knowledge necessary to implement a PPC auditing system, there are services available. You can visit this link for more information on detecting PPC Fraud and Auditing your PPC Programs. http://informer.bravehost.com/PPCauditing.html