Business owners taking their companies online may consider PPC - pay per click advertising - as a means of increasing website visibility and exposure.  While PPC advertising managed properly can yield increased traffic and revenues for business websites, there are obstacles that must be closely monitored.

One such issue is the practice of click fraud, the practice of clicking on a PPC ad with no intention of buying the product or service.  The advertising business owners are the vicitims of click fraud because they pay for the fradulent clicks.

Recent data from Click Forensics’ Click Fraud Index shows the problem of click fraud is continuing to worsen; as much as 16.6% of all clicks paid for by business advertisers is fraudulent, and has increased quarter by quarter throughout 2007.  The rate of click fraud is even worse for search engine content networks such as Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network; their rate of fraudulent clicks was 28.3 percent for 4Q 2007.

There are ways to reduce your risk of click fraud and maintain or increase the number of quality, relevant ad clicks.  Business owners or their employees with access to web analytics software and sufficient time may implement the recommendations below.  An alternative is to hire an experienced PPC Management firm with the tools and analytical ability required to cost effectively reduce or eliminate click fraud:

1. Prevent low quality sites from displaying your ads. Some ad providers allow for exclusion lists you can populate with low performing sites.
2. Monitor who is clicking on your ads and the quality of conversion against your daily spend. Some ad providers allow for an IP exclusion list.
3. Only display your ads to the geo-location you are targeting.
4. Monitor the time of day you are receiving poor quality traffic. Use ad scheduling to improve conversions and reduce fraud.
5. Find the keywords that are attracting the fraud or low quality traffic to your site. Some of the highest cost keywords generate the highest levels of click fraud because they make the most money for fraudsters.
6. Identify competitors and block domains and IP addresses and establish special landing pages.
7. Engage with an independent click auditing expert. They have the tools, experience and time to rapidly analyze your search program and will provide data and actionable solutions to address immediately with the search providers.

PPC advertising can be an effective means of advertising for websites.  However, professional ad campaign management may be necessary to maintain advertising budgets and prevent click fraud.