Click fraud is generally defined as any paid-for click that originates in a malicious attempt to drain an advertiser's budget. Especially for high-priced search terms, advertisers will sometimes attempt to drive up their competitors' marketing costs by clicking on their ads.
Click fraud is sometimes also motivated by revenue generated by pay-per-click (PPC) engines' affiliate networks. Here, an affiliate is driven by simple greed to run up multiple fraudulent clicks.
Most PPC search engines have systems in place that identify click fraud and then subsequently do not charge the advertiser for the fraudulent clicks. Google, the largest PPC-driven engine, seems to be able to detect rapid, successive clicking from the same person or IP address. However, individuals or organizations conducting click fraud are using more advanced cloaking technologies that may circumvent these preventive systems.
Google often issues refunds and adjustments based on reported click fraud. The company has also recently implemented more advanced human-based and technology-driven click fraud detection mechanisms.
In the majority of click fraud cases that we have investigated, we have found that click-fraud criminals are using rolling-IP distributed attacks from multiple countries. In addition, it appears that they may have organized human click-fraud campaigns using low-cost third-world labor.
On Google, "impression fraud" is another equally problematic form of click fraud. Impression fraud occurs when criminals manipulate the number of page impressions for a given search term. When an advertiser's relative click-through rate (CTR) decreases, his or her search term can be suspended because of low CTR performance. This creates a window of opportunity for other advertisers. By committing impression fraud, they are able to obtain higher search rankings at lower costs due to the crippled competition.
The revenue that is generated by click fraud varies greatly depending on whom you ask. However it is widely believed that if click fraud were completely eliminated, all of the major PPC engines would suffer a significant blow to revenues and share prices. It is important, however, that these PPC companies realize that maintaining the trust of their advertisers is vital to the long-term health of the industry.
Click fraud is sometimes also motivated by revenue generated by pay-per-click (PPC) engines' affiliate networks. Here, an affiliate is driven by simple greed to run up multiple fraudulent clicks.
Most PPC search engines have systems in place that identify click fraud and then subsequently do not charge the advertiser for the fraudulent clicks. Google, the largest PPC-driven engine, seems to be able to detect rapid, successive clicking from the same person or IP address. However, individuals or organizations conducting click fraud are using more advanced cloaking technologies that may circumvent these preventive systems.
Google often issues refunds and adjustments based on reported click fraud. The company has also recently implemented more advanced human-based and technology-driven click fraud detection mechanisms.
In the majority of click fraud cases that we have investigated, we have found that click-fraud criminals are using rolling-IP distributed attacks from multiple countries. In addition, it appears that they may have organized human click-fraud campaigns using low-cost third-world labor.
On Google, "impression fraud" is another equally problematic form of click fraud. Impression fraud occurs when criminals manipulate the number of page impressions for a given search term. When an advertiser's relative click-through rate (CTR) decreases, his or her search term can be suspended because of low CTR performance. This creates a window of opportunity for other advertisers. By committing impression fraud, they are able to obtain higher search rankings at lower costs due to the crippled competition.
The revenue that is generated by click fraud varies greatly depending on whom you ask. However it is widely believed that if click fraud were completely eliminated, all of the major PPC engines would suffer a significant blow to revenues and share prices. It is important, however, that these PPC companies realize that maintaining the trust of their advertisers is vital to the long-term health of the industry.
