A Hard Look At PPC Click Fraud And The Alternatives
With the creation of the Overture and Google Adwords systems, many webmasters believed they had finally hit the mother lode. It was no longer necessary for small online businesses to speculate massive amounts of cash into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services to achieve high search rankings in the natural search results.
Even webmasters committed to SEO campaigns began to understand its fleeting nature. Given frequent search engine algorithm changes, optimizing a website was no guarantee that in six months or less it would not be back to stand one and page twenty of the search results.
PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH ENGINE (PPCSE) PLACEMENT
With the advent of the PPCSE model created by Overture, and followed by Google Adwords, webmasters felt like they’d finally found the level taking part in field that everybody talks about. Hiring a SEO company was now not necessary to crack the top search engine results. A Page One placement could be purchased and usually for a lot less than the price of a SEO company’s services.
Webmasters discovered that they could get traffic to their web site for as very little as one cent per click.
Pay-per-click, but, has evolved over the past five years and not to the benefit of most webmasters. Although five cents is currently the average beginning bid value at most major search engines, several sought after keyword terms can value as abundant as $30 – $50 per click. Given the increasingly competitive nature of PPC advertising and spiralling costs, several small- to medium- sized businesses these days would possibly be higher served hiring a sensible SEO company to look optimize their websites.
WHO IS CLICKING YOUR PAY-PER-CLICK LINKS?
There are four varieties of individuals who click on pay-per-click ads. Knowing who these people are helps make a case for why specialists keep telling us that twenty% to twenty five% of all clicks on PPC listings are “fraudulent clicks”.
Temperament Type #1: True-Blue Prospects
These are the folks for whom you have got placed your pay-per-click ads. They see your advertisement; they like what they see; and they click your link to determine if you’ll actually serve their needs.
Personality Type #a pair of: Accidental Clickers
Every once in a very whereas, even my finger misfires, and I click an advert that I failed to intend on clicking. My first thought is sometimes, “Oh no…”, and my 1st action is to find the rear button.
I didn’t mean to price that person money by clicking his advertisement… but I did. It was an accident. Now, the advertiser should get my mistake. That bites.
Temperament Kind #3: Jealous Competitors
I would love to assume that all of my, and your, competitors are fine, upstanding people. And most of them are. But, there are some who are not, and they click on pay-per-click links just to be spiteful or simply to cost their business rivals a few dollars.
Believe it or not, a sensible proportion of “fraudulent clicks” are believed to be clicks perpetrated by folks against their competitors.
Personality Kind #4: True-Blue Fraudsters
Not that way back pay-per-click providers realized that there was tremendous chance in giving small website homeowners a technique for cashing in on their limited traffic.
These days, a webmaster can go to any number of pay-per-click services, add a small piece of code to a webpage and start serving paid advertising the identical day. Webmasters so become revenue share partners with the PPC provider, splitting revenues with the PPC provider for each click.
Moral webmasters, after all, put the needs of their advertisers 1st and target putting eyeballs on their website thus that visitors can click on the advertising links.
But, the word “ethical” does not exist in the vocabulary of some webmasters. These are the “true-blue fraudsters” who believe in making “revenue at any cost… no matter who would possibly be hurt by their actions.” They devise schemes to own their own ads clicked in order to drive up their revenue share.
These webmasters, although a minority, are responsible for the overwhelming majority of fraudulent clicks. And, they are the identical folks that should be taken out behind the barn, for a smart old-fashioned flogging — one lashing for every stolen dollar would be fine with me.
THE UNSEEN COSTS OF THE PAY-PER-CLICK SEARCH GAME
If the experts are correct in estimating that 25% of all clicks are fraudulent, then you are paying out 33% additional than you ought to have to pay to urge your business.
If you’re converting PPCSE clicks-to-sales at a rate of $20 per transaction, then you should bear in mind that your actual conversion rate for non-PPCSE advertising would value you a mean of $15 per transaction. By escaping the pay-per-click search engine model, you may in effect make an additional $5 per transaction by cutting the fraud out of your promoting budget.
Personally, I’d rather not pay the pay-per-click mafia the $five a transaction that they are exacting against pay-per-click advertisers.
WHERE MY ADVERTISING MONEY WORKS BEST
I have continually gained the simplest bang for my buck with pay-for-placement advertising. During a nutshell, I pay a monthly, quarterly or yearly fee to have my advertising seen on various websites. Banner advertising is always an possibility, however text links give higher click-through rates (CTR’s).
At anyone time, you’ll realize links to my websites on dozens of other websites.
Here are some samples of pay-for-placement, usually called “paid inclusion”, advertising networks:
ISEDN.org Network: ( http://www.ISEDN.org )
The Independent Search Engine and Directory Network (powered by ExactSeek.com) is comprised of more than two hundred specialty search engines, search directories and article directories. Through their system, you can purchase quarterly or yearly high ten exposure (http://www.exactseek.com/featured_listings.html) for specific keyword phrases which are then shown through the ISEDN’s two hundred plus member websites. Their network claims to show paid inclusion ads one hundred fifty million times per month.
Pricing starts at $four per month per keyword phrase and goes down consistent with the amount of keyword phrases purchased. Quarterly and yearly rates for one keyword phrase are $twelve and $thirty six, respectively.
BraveNet.com Home Page Featured Advertiser Listing: http://www.adbrite.com/mb/commerce/purchase_form.php?zone_id=8181 4
BraveNet is the number one supplier of free web tools in the planet and through their AdBrite sales page you can purchase a 30 day text advertisement at the underside of the Bravenet home page for $1500 or a 3 month advertisement for $3500. Consistent with the Bravenet Media Kit ( http://www.bravenetmedianetwork.com/mediakit.php ), their network serves 500 million page views per month.
ColdFront Network: ( http://www.coldfront.net/index.php/content/view/a hundred/50/ )
ColdFront serves the Large Multiplayer On-line Role-Taking part in Games (MMORPG) communities. With a hundred and fifty,000 distinctive visits and 12 million page views per month, they provide real advertising worth, if your target market happens to be during this area. Paid inclusion can be purchased for $250 to $350 per month.
WHO LEFT THE BARN DOOR OPEN?
We put locks and deadbolts on our doors. In some localities, we tend to place bars on our windows. We tend to keep our valuables in safes. We have a tendency to keep our cars locked when we aren’t in them. We tend to are a nation obsessed with protecting our valuables.
And however, when we advertise our online businesses, we seem to be willing to let PPCSE suppliers steal twenty five% of our advertising budget? It boggles the mind.
Personally, I am done with PPCSE companies till they can assure me that my advertising greenbacks are protected against click fraud.
I have always relied on my own search engine optimization skills to strengthen my natural search results. And frankly, I’m pretty good at it.
And, to supplement my own SEO efforts and organic search result placement sucesses, or lack thereof, paid inclusion currently offers me the best price for my money.
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