The new age of PPC digital marketing began ten years ago and click fraud (invalid clicks) has always been a concern for advertisers and thousands can be spent needlessly every year. Today, invalid clicks do not seem to be such an issue. Is this an error on behalf of advertisers and digital marketing professionals? Some would say yes. And if Click Forensics first quarter statistics for this year are correct – Reporting a record rise of more than 23% – There is very good reason to believe they are right.
The stats are scary; this means almost one in four click is useless. The rise in fake clicks has been attributed to fake mobile clicks and video advertising: The latest buzz in the world of digital marketing making it a prime target with the cheats – Which makes the theory viable and very probable. Right now this new digital marketing format is still being tried and tested: Which means not a lot is available in the form of statistics or comparisons.
Mobile click fraud is hard to detect. Even so, some advertisers have allocated a substantial percent of their PPC digital marketing budget to video and mobile advertising. So, is there a way to avoid the cheats targeting your advertising?
Is it Wise to Reduce the PPC Digital Marketing Budget?
In a word no: Although it is a good idea to keep a keen eye on where it is being spent and evaluating the results of the campaign – Particularly with regards to mobile advertising: Online and offline conversions should also be tracked. Then, regardless of invalid click counts, PPC Digital Marketing campaigns which are not performing well should be scaled down in favour of the higher performing campaigns.
Got Suspicions?
Report them: It helps. Bing and Google monitor clicks closely: Bing taking it to a new level recently by actually prosecuting one of cyberspaces biggest cheats. All the search engines will take any reports of click fraud seriously.
Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer
The conversion optimiser tool from Google can help optimise conversions for your PPC digital marketing campaigns. Focusing on conversions and not clicks is the better strategy with regards to avoiding click fraud.
Don’t Worry
The statistics are gloomy. Even so, a majority of digital marketing professionals have not witnessed any spikes in fraud. In addition Google and Bing do manage to detect problems most of the time.
Accuracy
Accuracy is not so much the point. Understanding how the click fraud statistics are deduced is important. Click forensics include clicks that were filtered out by the search engines. Therefore, while the statistics are accurate it is not a solid representation of wasted spend with regards to PPC digital marketing costs.
Conclusion
Does click fraud still exist? Definitely.
Qudos Digital is a leading Digital Marketing Consultancy and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk
