Papers & Articles

14/05/2007  |  Click Fraud

According to Wikipedia, Click fraud is a type of internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad's link.

There are 3 different kind of click fraud.

The first is “Network click fraud”. It occurs when a smaller publisher or a search engine that receives and displays paid placement or contextual results from a search network manufactures, creates, or misrepresents clicks delivered to its network partner.

The second type of click fraud is called, “Competitive click fraud”. This kind of click fraud is a big problem for smaller businesses, particularly when the service provided is of great value (or great lifetime value), resulting in high Cost Per Click (CPC). Lawyers, doctors, accountants, IT consultants, and, of course, search engine marketing (SEM)/SEO companies all bid in high CPC marketplaces. The higher the CPC, the greater the effect a competitor can have on a specific budget. If a listing gets a click a day from five people from a competitor in both Google and Yahoo Search Marketing, you will pay an extra with absolutely no benefit.

The last kind of click fraud is called “Impression fraud”. Google and other engines rely on an AdRank method of determining an ad's relevance. A competitor pauses his campaign while a sudden fraudulent surge in impressions on your keywords occurs. All these impressions occur with zero clicks. AdRanks for competing ads, including yours, drop through the floor. The competitor waits a bit, then swoops in with a normal ad with a high CTR. Your campaign is entrenched with keywords that are disabled or seriously crippled. So, Google makes an ad position decision based on fake data.

Most of the people who study online advertising estimate that 10% to 15% of ad clicks are fake, representing roughly £500 million in annual billings.