It is pretty clear to anyone who follows pay-per-click (PPC) advertising trends that click fraud is an ever-growing problem around the world. It already costs advertisers billions of dollars each year. The thing is that it doesn’t have to. Between paid click fraud prevention services and a few DIY techniques, it is possible to keep scammers at bay.
As things currently stand, click fraud is big business for one simple reason: advertisers do not understand it. Scammers are banking on the likelihood that the current ignorance will continue for the foreseeable future. As long as advertisers don’t know how they are being scammed, the scammers have the edge.
Below are four DIY strategies for minimizing the risk of click fraud, compliments of Fraud Blocker. As you read about each one, you should get a clearer understanding of how click fraud works. And even if not, you can always protect yourself by using Fraud Blocker.
Strategy #1: Avoid Third-Party Publishers
The first strategy is to avoid third-party ad publishers. Why would you do this? Because of fair number of scammers operate in the space. They set up fraudulent publishing platforms through which they sell ads, then turn around and scam their advertisers. If they are ever found out, they simply close up shop, move, and start over again.
It has been suggested that limiting PPC advertising to platforms like Facebook and Twitter eliminates third-party publishers altogether. That is actually true. But you may or may not get the kind of return you want just on these two platforms alone. It is something to think about.
Strategy #2: Block Suspect IPs
If you are using something like Fraud Blocker, you may be presented with a number of IP addresses the software suspects might be linked to click fraud. What do you do with that information? You block the suspect IPs. In Google Ads, you simply go to the Settings page and enter the suspect IPs to your Excluded list. There is not much to it.
Strategy #3: Focus on Remarketing
Remarketing is a way to advertise only among web users who have already shown interest in your products or services. Ads are served up to all first-time visitors, but they aren’t served up a second and third time if the visitor doesn’t register any meaningful activity on your website.
In a click bot or click farm scenario, your ads might be clicked on once, but that’s it. The perpetrator will not see your ads again after the first click. Therefore, repeated clicks won’t be possible. Remarketing is an effective strategy against fraudulent publishing platforms because it prevents publishers from seeing your ads to begin with.
Strategy #4: Adjust Your Target Markets
A good click fraud protection software package will identify clusters of invalid traffic coming from certain geographic regions. You could certainly block each and every suspect IP address from that region, and you should. But you might also be able to solve the problem with a quick adjustment of your target markets.
Just like you can include geographic regions in your target market, you can also exclude them. By making a few minor adjustments, you can prevent your ads from being served to devices in certain cities, regions, and even entire countries.
The last thing to note is that there is no single solution for putting a stop to click fraud. To be truly effective, advertisers need to utilize every available tool. That includes click fraud detection software, manual data analysis, and as many DIY strategies as possible. Stopping click fraud is possible. But it does require some effort.
