Click fraud is an unfortunate byproduct of the pay per click

advertising business. Many people with an online business spend

large amounts of money on pay per click advertising only to

discover that many of the people clicking on their ads weren't

really interested in their products or services. Bogus "visitors" to a pay per click ad represent click fraud.

This is a serious scam that threatens the viability of the pay

per click advertising business which has become enormously

profitable for all of the major search engine operators, namely

Google, Yahoo/Overture, and MSN. Click fraud has different forms, but the end result is generally

the same. Advertisers are billed for fruitless traffic

generated by someone who repeatedly clicks on an advertiser's ad

without any intention of ever buying anything. The search engine advertising market is currently about $3. 8

billion per year and estimates vary widely on how much click

fraud is actually going on. Clearly, the search engine operators

would like to downplay the extent of this problem. Some industry

experts claim that a little click fraud exists but that it is

overblown by advertiser paranoia, while others estimate that ten

to twenty percent of all clicks are false (made by someone with

no legitimate interest in the ad itself). Virtually everyone involved with pay per click advertising sees

click fraud and knows it's there, but no one is quite sure what

to do about it. Both Google and Yahoo/Overture acknowledge that the click fraud

problem exists, but claim improved internal controls will prevent

the problem from escalating. Their stated position seems to be

that they are concerned about click fraud, but that it is not a

material issue so far. Both of them are touting their increasing

internal actions aimed at detecting and combating click fraud. Such reassurances from search engine companies certainly aren't

surprising, given how much they stand to lose if advertisers

cut back on advertising spending. The stakes are huge and the

search engine companies are actively involved in public relations

campaigns. Industry research firm eMarketer expects $7. 4 billion

to be spent on search engine advertising by 2008, up from only

$108. 5 million back in 2000. The incentives for click fraud have increased along with the

money devoted to search engine advertising. Advertising on search

engines has turned into a fast-spreading craze as more and more

marketers have realized substantially higher returns on search

engine ads than on more traditional marketing campaigns conducted

through print media. Most pay per click advertisers set a spending limit and once the

spending limit is reached, the ads cease to appear in the search

results. Click fraud is a very unethical competitive tactic

where someone repeatedly clicks on a competitor's ad until the

spending limit is reached and the ad then disappears from the

search results. It seems that it's only a matter of time before

some advertisers become so exasperated with click fraud that they

file a class-action lawsuit against a major search engine. The success of search engine advertising has substantially

raised prices that advertisers pay for top spots. Unfortunately,

these higher prices have turned click fraud into a dark little

industry of its own. Some crooks have hired cheap overseas

contractors to just sit in front of computers and constantly

click on targeted ads and others are developing sophisticated

software to help automate and conceal click fraud. If you use pay per click advertising it would be wise to

carefully monitor your traffic to determine if you are the victim

of click fraud. In any event, it's probably safe to say that

pay per click advertisers are going to have to accept a certain

level of click fraud as just a cost of doing business. Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business

and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based

business. For more information visit his website at

Legitimate Home Based

Business

Author:
Kirk Bannerman