Click fraud has become a major problem for online marketers. If you participate on Google Adwords campaigns or Overture, you must already pay a lot for your campaigns.What is click fraud?
Click fraud is
deliberate clicks to PPC search engine ads for completely other reasons than expressing interest for buying related products or services.
Overture defines click fraud as clicks arising for reasons other than good-faith intention of an Internet user to visit a web site to purchase goods or services or to obtain information.
Google defines click fraud, or invalid clicks, as any method used to artificially and/or maliciously generate clicks or page impressions.
In simple words, Click fraud means that someone is cheating you and that you pay too much for your pay per click campaigns.
Who is doing that?
Three main groups click on pay per click ads, without real interest in offered goods:
People who join Google AdSense or other per click affiliate programs click on ads on their own web site to make a little income. Often, these people cooperate with other webmasters to click on each other's ads.
Some unethical companies click on pay per click ads of competitors to drive up their advertising costs.
Companies (often in India, Russia and China) hire people who are paid to click on ads. Google and other search networks provide refunds to advertisers when click fraud has been discovered.
Google and Overture employ "fraud squads," or teams of people dedicated to fighting click schemes. But at least two marketing executives say such countermeasures are missing fraudulent clicks that are responsible for between 5 percent and 20 percent of advertising fees paid to all search networks.
