If you’re in online construction product sales (or any product sales for that matter) you may very well be using pay-per-click advertising. At first glance it’s a simple concept. You only pay when people click on your link. The trouble with the system is that fraudulent clicks can seriously dent your pocket and bring about no additional sales.
It works this way – let’s use an example: wood screws. A wholesaler of wood screws engages in a pay-per-click – more commonly known as PPC – online campaign. However someone clicks on the link, not because they are interested in wood screws but because they want to generate the charge for the click. This lowers the percentage chance of a sale resulting from the clicks and uses up the budget that the screw wholesaler has set for the campaign. PPC fraud is often identified by low conversion to sales rate.
The really bad news is that it can get even more complicated than that if spyware is involved. There’s an explanation here No Ordinary Click Fraud which is certainly worth reading if you’re embarking on PPC campaigns.
I suppose you have to take the rough with the smooth and try it. A well-managed PPC campaign integrated within your digital marketing strategy may bring significant benefits but the key-phrase here is “well-managed”. Unless you have many many hours to burn, online promotion is probably best outsourced to someone who really knows what they’re doing.
When it comes to PPC many marketers think its a one-time setup and forget activity in the hope that traffic comes through and ultimately converts. This is where you are most likely to be hit with fraudulent clicks.
PPC is certainly not a ‘one-time setup and forget’ activity. Every campaign needs to be monitored and validated very closely. Not only for conversions but for signs of PPC fraud clicks.
Marketers should be spending at least 10 minutes a day checking the traffic generated from their PPC campaigns and using Analytics to determine Network Location or Service Provider (or even IP addresses) to see if competitors alike are clicking on your PPC ads. If you notice high traffic from one particular service provider or IP address you know there is something fishy going down. Inform your adword provider immediately.
Having said that, Google has got better at detecting ‘fraudulent’ clicks and will give you refund on excessive clicks which have come from one service provider or IP address. Check your statement or bills when they come through for refund clicks.
Agreed, Pritesh.
Adwords, or any other PPC or CPC campaign, is absolutely not a ‘one-time setup and forget’ system. Set up and forget and you’ll be hit with Googles ‘idiot tax’ as a result – That is where Google make gazillions of passive income from businesses that don’t bother to update or watch their PPC accounts
It’s rarely a sensible policy to leave something in the hands of luck – except maybe the lottery (but then that’s a lottery!) and you’ll rarely win that.