Click Fraud – Are You A Victim Of Pay Per Click Fraud?

Google has done a good job with reducing click fraud. But let’s face it, there will always be a certain amount of click fraud.  If you see an unusual spike in traffic that you suspect is due to click fraud, here’s what you should do first:

Click Fraud Check 1:

Did you change anything in your campaign settings in the past days? If you have raised your budgets or your CPC prices, then that can be the reason for a spike in traffic. Also, if you have put up new ads in the content network, maybe it took some time to get approved, and it was only after your ad has been approved that your traffic started to spike.

Also, if you are promoting an acne product, and then the New York Times writes a front-page article on a new acne cure, this might cause a spike in search volume and ad impressions.

Click Fraud Check 2:

Do you see lots of clicks from the same IP? In some cases it may be click fraud, but often it is just that a group of people uses the same IP address. Some ISPs (internet service providers) give the same IP address out to all their customers in a specific region, instead of individual IP addresses.

Click Fraud Check 3:

Maybe a competitor stopped advertising – this made the field clear for your ads, and now you are the dominating player in the market, and all the clicks that your competitor received previously goes to your landing pages.

Click Fraud Check 4:

If you are promoting a season product, then that sometimes might trigger high search volumes – and more clicks. (e.g. if you are promoting flowers around valentines day).

If you can rule all of these out, you might want to contact Google and request a click fraud investigation.

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