Definition Of Click Fraud Gone To Far!

[Anthony Parsons]

I was reading this article just now( http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=13244 ), and I paused for a second after the first paragraph.

Click fraud describes the practice of clicking on pay-per-click online ads with no intention of making a purchase. It drives up commissions for those hosting the clickable links, forcing marketers to pay the percentage on the fraudulent "leads," and it can undermine the cost effectiveness of online PPC campaigns.

I don't know about others, but if what I bold above is true, then I am as guilty as hell of click fraud on a near daily basis. I search for results in Google and other other engines, regardless why I am searching, contextual results are sometimes more appropriate for what I searched. I know, that is sad, but its true. I click on several ads to view the site and whether its content is what I am after.

Maybe it's me, or maybe the author just needs to think a little clearer about that statement?

[David Wallace]

I wouldn't agree with the author's statement at all. A person doing pay per click is paying for leads, not sales. They acquire those leads by attracting people who are searching for key phrases related to their product or service. Once that person clicks through, it is then up to the business or web site to convince them to buy.

I see click fraud rather as being when someone repeatedly clicks on a listing knowing each click is costing the advertiser money or when the PPC provider misrepresents the actual number of clicks.

[Anthony Parsons]

Yep, same same David. That's how I interpreted click fraud. A statement like that, made in the article, could give people a slight complex about even clicking upon an ad. How silly.

[tonerman]

I run a macro several times a week I wrote that pulls all the initial page entries from google. I use dedicated landing pages for google so I know when someone comes into my site from a Google search, plus what search term they used. I frequently see the same user click on an ad 2-3 or even more times in a few minutes or seconds. Google does not define this as click fraud - it is frequently someone comparison shopping in their words. I have come to accept a certain amount of wasted multiple clicks as part of the price of PPC ads. The only defense if it gets out of hand is to lower the ad's prominence to a lower position if necessary to reduce expense.