ClickAssurance.com’s mission is to help preserve the integrity of the PPC Industry. This site aims to educate advertisers on the risks of click fraud and provide industry leading technology and service to online advertisers. Once you realize how prevalent click fraud is in the industry, and how likely you are to have experienced click fraud yourself you will most likely seek to perform the audit.
Why You Should Seek Expert Help:
In our opinion, if you truly understand technology, you understand that this problem can never be fully stopped. The reason is, the pros can put together sophisticated software programs that simulate human behavior, good enough that software programs can’t detect it. It will be a cat and mouse game, just like SPAM. In order to combat SPAM, would you have your technology group develop their own filters, or would you use an established filter.
Once You Find Click Fraud
If you suspect you’ve been the victim of click fraud, you should contact your Google representative, advises JimGuide Patrcik Hartman, a search engine optimization expert. Click fraud victims should report the fraud immediately in order to get refunds, experts suggest, although there have been mixed views on how well Google cooperates with its click fraud victims. Some people rave about how quickly their problems were resolved, although there have been complaints that it takes continued effort to obtain refund checks from Google. “If you don’t have a rep,” he says, “try calling back their customer service number and demand to speak with someone that is in more of a management position than the tier1 person that you will initially talk to.”
Click Fraud is Rampant in the Industry
Do you think Click Fraud is rampant in the industry? Consider this:
We’ve gathered information from clients, industry experts, search engines, and advertisers. Make up your own mind.
1. Google admitted in filings of its recent IPO, “We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members”
2. You’ve probably already read the India Times Article, “A growing number of housewives, college graduates, and even working professionals across metropolitan cities are rushing to click paid Internet ads to make $100 to $200 (up to Rs 9,000) per month,”
3. In the same article, clickers say they get paid $7 for every $50 earned through clicks.
4. There are accounts of the same type of activity in several other countries, not just India.
5. All PPCs have found fraud and given advertisers refunds.
6. Countless advertisers complain about the PPCs not returning phone calls, being severely backlogged on fraud claims, not returning emails, (These are months in a lot of cases that they wait with absolutely no response)
7. When click fraud happens, PPCs get half of the revenue.
8. Millions of dollars, government interaction, and a collective consciousness that “HATES” spam can’t stop it. The pros still get in.
9. Lots of dollars have been spent by search engines to avoid search engine spam, The pros still get it.
10. Countless advertisers report spikes in traffic from 50 clicks a day to 3000 a day until their funds are depleted. Other cases are not so obvious.
In our opinion, if you truly understand technology, you understand that this problem can never be fully stopped. The reason is, the pros can put together sophisticated software programs that simulate human behavior, good enough that software programs can’t detect it. The better we get at identifying and preventing it, the better they’ll get at doing it. It will be a cat and mouse game, just like SPAM.
