Click Fraud and What it Means to Pay Per Click Advertisers

Click fraud is something to worry about if you are considering beginning a pay per click advertising campaign. Before you make your final decision it's a good idea to consider the risks and not only the benefits that are associated with pay per click advertising campaigns.

Click fraud has definitely put a bit of a slow down on the popularity of pay per click advertising. But, what exactly is it?

There are actually several ways in which click fraud can be accomplished. What it is though is when people click on ads with no intention of purchasing or even taking a look around. When you are paying for every click, it hurts your budget to have people clicking on your ads without planning or even entertaining the thought of purchasing. That being said it happens sometimes by those who are simply seeking information. However, when you receive an unusually high amount of clicks without making any sales from those clicks or fewer than normal sales, chances are that you are a victim of click fraud. But, who does this and why?

The most common are those who are in direct competition for your business. They believe that by driving up your costs of doing business they can get you to abandon the keywords you are using to promote your business or that at the very least they will strike a blow to your business and/or profit.

Another common source for click fraud are those who are competing against the website where your ads were published. They believe they can harm them and their income source by casting doubt or harming their reputation as a publisher. It has been successful for many unfortunately, who have managed to put publishers out of business, at least out of business with pay per click income because of penalties handed out by the search engines who ban them for these infractions.

The publishers themselves. Sometimes the fraud is by the publishers and their friends who are clicking on the ads on their pages. This is an activity that impacts everyone and is frowned upon heavily by the search engines that have been known to levy lifetime bans for this activity.

On occasion, click fraud is personal though not often. In these instances, people will click on ads in hopes of driving up the costs for you and your ads. Other times it is personal against the publisher by those who are interested in putting him or her out of business. Unfortunately we live in a world where differences sometimes spill out and impact others before they can be solved.

At the moment click fraud is a very real problem that impacts many pay per click campaigns. It is important to remember though that it doesn't impact them all and that there are plenty of campaigns that are successful and not victims of click fraud each and every day. Many find that the potential benefits far outweigh the risks.