Yahoo take on PPC Click Fraud
Yahoo have introduced a new reporting feature in the Panama pay per click (PPC) interface. Under the heading of “Traffic Quality Reports”, the new Report is called “Click Filter”.
The stats displayed in the report relate to the volume of sponsored search clicks not charged or discounted as matching Yahoo’s low quality click profile. Previous to this when your Yahoo pay per click (PPC) campaign suffered a spike in traffic or costs with little increase in conversions, you had to contact support and rely on their say as to what sponsored search clicks had or would be refunded. This would invariably mean a long wait for a reply while the potential PPC fraud continues. The new report provides a starting point for actions to protect your pay per click budgets.
Click fraud is often cited as a reason for businesses not using PPC, and the search engines have not always helped the negative press. In 2006 Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s solution to PPC click fraud was quoted as “Let it happen”, the system is almost self regulating in that , the quality of clicks would go down and the price advertisers willing to pay would fall. Advertisers would need to factor this PPC click fraud as part of the overall cost and accept it in the return and investment calculations.
More recently PPC click fraud has become an active battle for publishers, engines and software companies fighting for advertisers budgets. Yahoo announced the partnership with Click forensics a third party software supplier devoted to preventing PPC click fraud.
While the search engines will always cover their backs for potential click fraud, as the market demands. It must be remembered that while a low quality click is negative to a PPC campaign, the engine still charges for the majority of clicks. That is why we at Click Consult offer our own click forensic options.
Click fraud does not effect every market on the sponsored links, but those most competitive areas with higher cost per click (CPC), could always benefit from the added protection. The key to protecting against PPC click fraud will always be vigilance, monitoring, reporting and understanding the traffic patterns of your pay per click campaigns.
