Click Fraud And Just How Bad Is It

You may call it as old news, but the implications of this phenomenon is still felt until today. And believe it or not, click fraud is costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars, every year.

You might point out that Google appears to be the only one that's raising a ruckus over this, but that's precisely the reason why.

Let's face it. Google is the largest search engine and web marketing company in the world. If you want your business or website gain a clear presence in the internet, then getting it indexed in Google is the way to go. And if you want to generate revenue for your site by increasing visitors, you pay Google to advertise your site. You can also earn money by advertising Google-sponsored ads in your site, in other words, become a second-tier publisher.

The basis of how much you pay for Google to sponsor you and the other way around is through the cost-per-click (CPC) system. The cost of each click depends entirely on the keywords that you want to be clicked for. It might go as high as fifty dollars or even as low as five cents for each click. Every time someone clicks on your site that Google sponsored, a certain fee is charged to your account. It goes the same way if someone clicks on a link you've placed in your site. Google will then pay you for advertising it in your site.

That's why it's understandable if there are unscrupulous individuals who takes advantage of that set-up. The most common is what we call network click fraud. The idea here is to fraudulently increase the money Google pays them by generating false (not productive) clicks on their site. The partner publisher could get more money using this method from Google than relying people who are actually interested in the ad.

The other type of fraud is called competitor click fraud. This more malicious form of fraud involves a company who targets its competitor's ads. It would then make hundreds or even thousands of false clicks to increase the competitor's marketing bill with Google. In this way, that company will end up depleting its marketing budget without making any profit from the visits at all. For small businesses with limited marketing budgets, it could mean the end of its marketing ability or the business itself. And the competing business will emerge as the victor.

Through the years, Google has employed various methods in identifying and stopping click frauds from happening. They are quite successful, although there are still companies who are not happy. Many are those who claim that they have not been fully reimbursed for the costs they have incurred from click fraud. Some have even filed lawsuits against Google for what they claim is negligence on the part of the search engine giant. It's still a big mess until now, but it's clear that something is being done. As long as click fraud could be kept at bay, then there shouldn't be a problem anymore.