Click Fraud
From Adylitica
Click fraud is a term for people deliberately clicking on your ads who have no intent to buy, and just want to trigger a click charge.
Google's position is that they filter click fraud out and do not bill for it, however practically speaking it is impossible for click fraud to be completely eliminated.
Google is for obvious reasons quite secretive about how they combat click fraud, however it's well known that they use some tactics such as tracking cookies and ip logging to disable obvious attempts of click fraud.
One side effect of click fraud may actually be positive, higher click rates on ads will increase the quality score and move the ad to a higher position. In the end this however is probably more costly than increasing the bid price of the ads.
Who commits click fraud?
Two types of people commit 99% of click fraud: competitors and Content Network abusers.
Competitors click on your ads to use up your ad budgets so that their ads will show, or just to drain money from your pockets.
Content Network abusers are people who have websites that show Google ads, and click on ads that appear on their sites so that they will get a cut of Google's revenue from those clicks.
Google strongly warns Content Network affiliates to avoid clicking on ads appearing on their own page, or from encouraging others to click on those ads.
Optimization to reduce click fraud
- Avoid advertising on the Content Network, there is a cash incentive for sites to click on their own ads.
- Use Geo-targeting to avoid advertising in India and China.
- Use independent tracking services to help you detect click fraud. If you have proof of fraud, you can contest a click charge with Google.
- Narrowly target your ad groups so that they never appear to those who would commit click fraud.
- Monitor CTR carefully, if there is a spike without corresponding Conversions, consider pausing the ad or changing it.
