When you pay for every time someone clicks on your Google Ads, you expect to see some type of return. Google says you should see an average conversion rate of around 3.5% (three sales per ten clicks). However, if people fraudulently click on your ad, they’re committing click fraud since you’re paying for “fake” clicks. This fraud can cause you to spend more money and not even reach your target audience.
Types of Click Fraud with Google Ads
Once you understand what click fraud is, you may wonder why people engage in this practice. What’s in it for them? To answer this question, it’s essential to look at the two types of click fraud.
Click Fraud by Competitors
Your competition wants you to spend a lot of money on Google Ads without seeing any return. While many companies wish for this, others take steps to ensure that it happens. They do this because when you blow your ad budget, they’ll have less competition when they run their Google Ads later in the day. Additionally, your ad score is impacted by low-quality clicks, so your ad is shown less.
Click Fraud by Publishers
Publishers also benefit by clicking directly on your Google Ads. They do so because Google Ads pays them a percentage for each click that your ad receives while on their website. When there are more clicks, the publisher makes more money.
Understanding Click Fraud Prevention
While it’s challenging to detect click fraud, setting up click fraud prevention isn’t challenging. Doing so will also help you be more conscious of when it’s happening so you can limit its impact.
Set Up IP Exclusions in Google Ads
When you look through your Google Ads data and know for sure that specific IP addresses are creating fraudulent clicks, take a moment to block them. Once you’ve done so, your ads will no longer show up on those websites. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fool-proof method since some operations are pretty sophisticated.
Consider How You Run Display Ads
Display ads are in the greatest need of click fraud prevention because they’re the most susceptible. This susceptibility comes from the fact that the publisher can conduct click fraud, which they can’t do with search ads. If you still want to use display ads, you should focus on retargeting ads.
When running retargeting ads, they’ll only be visible to people who’ve visited your website in the past. Publishers then won’t be able to see your ads on their sites. You’ll also benefit because you can target your audience at various parts of their journey with you. It’s also an excellent means of click fraud prevention.
Concentrate on Ad Targeting
The best means of click fraud prevention is creating highly targeted ads. These Google Ads will also be more successful. Here are a few tips to help you with this:
- Since most click farms are located in low-income countries, you should exclude these countries and their languages.
- Focusing on a smaller geographic area will ensure that you get your ads in front of people who are motivated to take action. Not only will this make your Google Ads more effective, but it’ll also serve as a form of click fraud prevention.
While taking these actions won’t wholly stop click fraud, they’ll help you improve your return on investment (ROI).
Focus on Social Media Ads
As you work with social media ads, you’ll see that they’re much less keyword-based than the ads you pay to run on the search engines. For this reason, people can’t simply type in a keyword and view your ad. However, these platforms collect so much information about their visitors that you can be pretty targeted when choosing the audience that will see your ads.
Not only will social media ads reduce the likelihood of click fraud, but they’ll also help improve your ROI. You’ll also benefit from the fact that social media platforms don’t have any third-party owners. This factor further eliminates click fraud since publishers can’t commit it here, which means your ads are safer.
Use Click Fraud Protection Software
There are also numerous click fraud prevention services (e.g., ClickCease, CHEQ, Oracle, PPC Shield) available from which you can choose. These companies have created specific algorithms that they use to monitor your ads. In doing so, they can not only detect when fraud is occurring, but they can also take actions so that these fraudulent clicks are quickly quarantined.
While you’ll need to pay for this level of protection, they’ll ultimately save you money. Whether the cost will outweigh the benefits depends on the scale of your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and whether you believe you’re suffering from click fraud. Since you can quickly start seeing results when you’re using one of these services, you can always give it a “test run.” You won’t be tied into anything, so this is worthwhile.
Set Your Business Up for Success Today
Unfortunately, click fraud prevention is complicated. However, you need to understand that it’s harming your business since you’re paying for ads that you aren’t receiving. The best way to overcome this issue is to hire us at Local SEO Tampa Company in Tampa, FL.
We’ll create a proactive approach to ensure you get the most from your PPC advertising. This approach is one you should be taking since you pay for every click and deserve everything you get in return. To make sure you do so, contact us today.