Click fraud is always an issue with PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns.
We manage a lot of PPC campaigns and click fraud is usually a topic of interest so I asked my Google rep about it, curious what the response would be.
She sent me a long email with a whole bunch of links. Apparently, this is not a topic Google takes lightly – and they shouldn’t. They have a number of strategies in place for detecting click fraud, some of which I would like to share.
Click on this link to find out how Google detects invalid clicks.
“Google looks at numerous data points for each click, including the IP address, the time of the click, any duplicate clicks, and various other click patterns. Our system then analyzes these factors to try to isolate and filter out potentially invalid clicks before they ever reach your account reports. This detection and filtering occurs over a number of levels including the following:
– Real-time systems filter out activity fitting a profile of invalid behavior (such as excessively repetitive clicks)
- Clicks and impressions from known sources of invalid activity are automatically discarded”
Apart from these automated filtering systems, they have a team dedicated strictly to monitoring click fraud.
What’s nice to see is that if an account is exposed to click fraud, Google offers a credit for those clicks. I have actually seen such credits be awarded to accounts.
There are ways to help detect invalid clicks as well. Running an Account Performance Report or a Campaign Performance Report which show you the click activity of your account is a great place to start.
So bottom line, Google does its share in making sure Adwords users are protected from click fraud. We wouldn’t expect any less from an online giant like Google!
Please feel free to contact us at Anduro Marketing to set up your PPC campaign or ask questions!
