Are you getting too few sales from too many clicks? You could be a victim to fraudulent clicks. Read on to find out 3 tips to prevent them!
Pay-per-click advertising is something that many of us are familiar with. If you aren’t, you probably are, and just don’t know it yet. The ads you see on the sides of websites are PPC ads, and when you click on one, you are directed to the product/service/website. Ad placement is usually very accurately targeted, and because of that, people pay top dollar for those ads. Advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked on, regardless of how much they profit from the visit. These clicks can cost anywhere from a few cents to a hundred dollars or more.
It’s nice to be the advertiser, where each click makes you money . You don’t really have to do anything, but make money (It’s really nice to be Google AdWords, where you make money from everyone). And of course, people have to get greedy. And so click fraud was invented, where fraudulent clicks are made to make money, rather than earn it with actual potential customers.
If you are a PPC advertiser, you need to know how to protect yourself from fraudulent clicks. Beyond saving you money, it will allow you to maintain more credibility. Check out these tips, they will definitely help you protect your business.
IP Exclusion
Sometimes it’s a targeted attack, and maybe you even know who is doing it. You can find someone’s IP address easily by using a tool like whatismyip.com, or even a traceroute. Once you have identified the fraudulent clicks, you can exclude that IP, meaning that your ads will not be shown to that anyone from that IP. You could block your crazy ex, or a competitor, or that shady dude from down the street that you suspect. Any IP you find to be fraudulent, you can block easily.
Google Display Network
GDN marketing can be a smarter and safer way to use pay per click advertisements. Instead of placing your ads on whatever site you want, or at random, your ads appears on relevant sites, or after relevant searches. It’s like the ads I keep seeing for waffle recipes because I spent an hour looking for a good one the other day. Or maybe you love watching Steph Curry videos, and coincidentally, you keep getting Under Armour ads displayed on the webpages you visit. Whatever the case, you will target more legitimate clickers.
Adjusting the Map
You can limit your ads to being displayed in certain geographic regions. Let’s say you own a taco truck in L.A., and you don’t plan on traveling to the Bay Area anytime soon, so you go ahead and advertise to L.A. county only. Or you’re getting too many fake clicks from Azerbaijan. Or you just want to block your mother in Monterey from seeing your ads and clicking on them without actually coming to try your secret sauce. So whether it’s pollo or carne, customize your map to make sure you’re advertising to the right audience, and not to spam clickers.
No matter what you advertise, make your ads count, and don’t pay for fraudulent clickers. Stay alert, and pay attention to your account!