Methods to stop click on fraud in your PPC advertisements
You have worked hard to perfect your ad campaign, create action-inducing landing pages, and generate sales. Your ads just went online, but there is one big problem: people out there keep clicking your ads with no intention of buying anything.
It sounds dramatic, but click fraud is something advertisers should be aware of (advertisers lose around $ 5.8 billion annually worldwide) and it can affect the success of your ads.
What is click fraud?
When you run a PPC ad on Google or any other platform, you pay every time someone clicks your ad. If you're doing your job well, expect a good number of those clicks to convert into a sale (or whatever your goal is).
For mobile phone ads on Google, the average conversion rate is 3.48 percent. So you can assume that for every ten clicks you will make three sales. What if people click your ad with no intention of making a purchase or viewing your website?
This is known as click fraud and can be a problem for advertisers.
When people (or bots) fraudulently click on your ads, it could mean that you are paying for non-real clicks. This can consume your daily ad spend, which means that your message will never reach your target audience.
Surely Google and the other search engines cannot allow this.
Click fraud is being taken increasingly seriously by search engines and systems have been put in place to combat fraud. The problem is that click fraud is very difficult to spot. So it's not a perfect science, and it's still possible for people out there to click on your ads and consume your ad budget.
Types of click fraud
Click fraud is very simple: someone clicks on your PPC ads to cost you money. Why do people do this and what do they get out of it?
There are two main types of click fraud.
Click Competitor Fraud
Wouldn't it be great if your competitors were spending a ton of money on something and getting nothing in return?
Of course, we wouldn't mind if this happened, but some companies and individuals go a step further by making sure it happens.
Your competitors will benefit if you fraudulently click on your ads in two ways.
First, it means that you pay for clicks that have no chance of conversion, and second, it means that you will blow up your daily ad spend much faster. This means that if they run their ads later in the day, there will be less competition.
These low quality clicks can also affect your ad rating. This means your ad will show less often and your CPC will go up.
Click Publisher Fraud
Your competitors profit from click fraud by hurting you. However, there is another player in this equation who can benefit directly from clicking your ad: the publisher.
When you run display ads (ads on third-party websites), the publisher gets a percentage of what you pay Google for each click. More clicks on your ads mean more sales for the publisher.
Not every website can be completely trusted, and there have been some large-scale reports of advertising fraud in recent years.
This is how you can tell if click fraud is affecting your website
A big part of PPC's success is being able to interpret data. This is a great way to optimize your PPC strategy and thus find out if click fraud is affecting your website.
To see if you are experiencing ad fraud, you need to see what happens when people click your ad and where those clicks came from. To do this, you need to collect:
- IP addresses
- Click on Timestamp
- Action timestamp
- User agent
You can use this information to identify a large number of clicks that might have come from the same person without ever leading to any action.
If you see a lot of clicks from the same IP address that have a click timestamp but no action timestamp, it may raise suspicion. You can then check the IP address on a website like www.whatismyip.com to see where that click is coming from.
While those involved in sophisticated click fraud can hide important information, this can give you an indication of whether you are being targeted.
If you have any suspicions, you should always contact Google and report the problem so that the company can investigate the problem further. As always, the clues are included in the data. So if you have experience with PPC and something is wrong with your numbers, it is always worth investigating.
Why Eliminate Click Fraud Is Important
You have many options for advertising and you chose PPC because it gives you a certain ROI. However, if you suffer from click fraud, your investment will not be profitable.
Worse, your competitors (whether they are doing the click fraud or not) are likely to benefit from it.
It is important that Google and the other search engines have mechanisms in place to stop click fraud as they want advertisers to continue using their platform without worrying about "false" clicks. You are the one who gets the hit for it. So it is in your best interest to make sure this doesn't happen.
You need to trust your campaign data to get the most out of your ad spend and see conversions. Because of this, click fraud is a consideration for many advertisers. According to PPC Protect, 11 percent of all paid search clicks and 36 percent of all clicks on display ads are fraudulent. So you shouldn't ignore them.
5 Steps to Prevent Click Fraud
Click fraud can be difficult to spot, but there are a few steps you can take to prevent it. There is no surefire way to get rid of click fraud. However, if you are aware of this, you can limit its effects.
There are five steps you can take to limit the impact of click fraud on your PPC ads.
1. Set up IP exclusions in Google Ads
If you've looked through your data and found that certain IP addresses are fraudulently clicking on your ads, you can block them through Google Ads. This means that your ads will not be served to the IP addresses that you have identified as fraudulent.
In your ad account, go to the Settings tab and select IP Exclusions.
This may be a way of detecting click fraud in your ads. However, some of these operations are quite sophisticated. Therefore, it is not a foolproof method.
2. Think about how you will run display ads
According to PPC Protect, display ads are much more prone to click fraud. This makes sense because you have the added element of publisher click fraud that doesn't exist with search ads.
However, you are in control of how your display ads show, and one option is to focus on retargeting.
If you run retargeting ads, they will only be visible to people who have visited your website in the past. This means that the publisher will not be able to see your ads on their website and will no longer be able to click on them.
Retargeting is a great way to target your audience at different stages of the customer journey, with the added benefit of making it harder to fraudulently click on your ads.
3. Focus on ad targeting
The more targeted your ads are, the more successful they are likely to be. This also likely makes them less prone to click fraud.
Many of the click farms are focused on specific locations (generally low-income countries). You can therefore limit your risk by excluding these countries (and languages) from your targeting.
You want to show your ads in front of people who take action. Hence, it is important that you target your ads with your target audience. Not only does focusing your attention on a smaller geographic area may make your ads more effective, it also makes it harder for users to fraudulently click on them.
Again, this is not a science and it is very difficult to completely stop click fraud (if Google could). However, if you follow good PPC steps, you can improve your ROI while protecting yourself.
4. Focus on social media ads
Social media ads are much less keyword based than paid ads on search engines. This makes it much more difficult for users to enter a keyword and see your ad.
Platforms like Facebook have so much information about their users that it is possible to be very targeted with the people you reach. This will reduce the likelihood of click fraud and allow you to get a better return on your paid ads.
Unlike display ads, social media platforms don't have third-party providers either. This will avoid publisher click fraud and will make your ads a little more secure.
5. Use the Click Fraud Protection Software
There are many different providers of click fraud protection services. Companies like ClickCease, Oracle, CHEQ and PPC Shield monitor your ads using fraud detection algorithms and fraudulent click quarantine.
These solutions typically cost around $ 50 per month for a basic package and can save you money.
Whether or not you invest in this type of protection depends on the size of your PPC campaigns and whether you believe you are suffering from click fraud. The nice thing is, when these platforms work, you should start seeing the results in your data quickly.
You are not tied to anything. So it pays to test these out and see if they are relevant to your campaigns.
tldr; This is how you prevent click fraud
There are a few simple steps you can take to prevent click fraud. This is a complicated problem, and no fix is a magic bullet. However, by following these steps, you can spot click fraud in your ads and limit the impact on your PPC.
- S.IP exclusions in Google Ads
When you've analyzed your data and believe that certain IP addresses are fraudulently clicking on your ads, you can add them to an exclusion list in Google Ads.
- Think about how you will run display ads
A big part of click fraud is getting publishers to click your ads on their website. If you focus on retargeting your display ads, publishers are less likely to see your ads.
- Focus on ad targeting
Concentrate on your target groups and streamline your network as much as possible. The more people your ad shows outside of your target audience, the more likely it is that scammers will attract their attention.
- Look at social media ads
Social media ads on platforms like Facebook and Instagram are less keyword-focused, making them harder to search for. With intelligent targeting, these platforms still offer great value for money. It's just harder for scammers to find them.
- Use software to protect against click fraud
If you think click fraud is costing you a lot of money, it makes sense to invest in protecting your ads. Keep an eye on your analyzes and assess whether protection software improves your ROAS.
Conclusion
Click fraud is a complicated problem that can affect your PPC ads.
While Google and the other search engines are taking steps to prevent click fraud and reimburse you for improper clicks, this is not a perfect science. Because of this, it sometimes pays to take a proactive approach to making sure you are getting the most out of your PPC.
PPC is all about fine margins. When you pay for every click, you need to make sales to get a return on your investment. However, if you continue to receive fraudulent clicks, it simply cannot be.
They go to great lengths to create high converting landing pages and produce amazing ad copies. Therefore, it may be time to protect this investment.
How do you deal with click fraud?
See How my agency can drive Firmly Traffic volumes on your website
- SEO – Unlock massive amounts of SEO traffic. See real results.
- Content Marketing – Our team creates epic content that is shared, links accessed and visitors drawn.
- Paid media – effective paid strategies with a clear ROI.
Book a call