Click Fraud: A Double Threat
How can advertisers actually begin to help networks stamp out the problems of click fraud? The CEO of ClickFacts shares his answers.
In recent months click fraud has taken an insidious turn, expanding from a marketer’s nightmare to one that threatens anyone unlucky enough to click on the wrong search ad or land on a compromised web page. Fraudsters now embed malicious programs right into landing pages, banners and PPC ads delivered via ad networks like Google and Yahoo! and even hijack entire brands through ‘redirects’, which spoof legitimate pages but are full of malicious content. Brands victimised by these attacks suffer immediate financial damage to their campaigns, loss of customers and, worse yet, damage to their hard-earned reputations as a result.
As if that wasn’t enough, advertisers are still vexed by a near total lack of visibility into the actual performance of their PPC campaigns. None of the major ad networks release the necessary information to help advertisers tweak their campaigns for the best returns, and more often than not click fraud becomes a ‘write off’. And there is zero transparency and accountability in regard to the performance of affiliate networks — so advertisers just do not know where (or even if) their ads are being shown. Of course, many don’t care so long as they see a return, but those worried about brand image wouldn’t want their ads to appear on pages with questionable content, and even fewer advertisers want to be associated with adware, spyware and popups. This double threat — brand equity lost to the ravages of malware and a complete lack of campaign accountability — still make PPC campaigns risky business for brand marketers.
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