Search Engine Placement

Many SEO only companies tell their clients to stay away from pay per click campaigns because of “rampant click fraud”. (For you newbies out there; click fraud is when competitors keep clicking on your sponsored ads in hope of driving up your your costs).

While click fraud is real, Google, Yahoo, & MSN, have many precautions in place to protect their multi billion dollar pay per click revenues (If your not happy you won’t be using their services). In fact, most surveys have determined that only about about 5% of all Adwords advertisers have received fraudulent clicks.

For you to determine your plan of action you should first look at your pay per click budget. There are several ways to monitor click fraud on your own but the cost alone may offset the actual fraud.

1. Monitor your CTR (Click Through Rate). If you see a sudden, unexplainable increase in your CTR this may be possible click fraud.
2. Sudden drops in conversion rates (Not tracking conversions or sign ups? Shame on you!) Let us help you: Contact us
3. Suspicious IP addresses: Check your Google analytics reports for recurring clicks from an IP address

If you believe you have found possible click fraud keep detailed notes and contact the support staff for your search engine. They will review your reports and can credit your account for the fraudulent clicks.

Lastly, just remember that few companies suffer from click fraud. Don’t be afraid to test out a sponsored search engine placement services because some one knew someone that didn’t have success with PPC. Pay per click campaigns can be a great way to supplement your natural search engine optimization efforts and provide quicker results.