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in a foreign country is virtually impossible
46 PAYOUTMAGAZINE
This is one of the most common mechanisms
to detect. That said, even automatic PPC by which website owners are snared in direct,
fraud technology can be designed with clever for-profit PPC fraud scams. This is one area
algorithms, to help minimize its footprint. of digital marketing where it pays to do your
homework, particularly if your website caters
Reputable advertising networks, such as to an audience that makes it ineligible for non-
Google AdSense, run detection algorithms specialized ad networks.
to avoid charging advertisers for suspicious
clicks, such as those occurring in accordance Take a look at the ad networks used by some
with known click fraud algorithms and of the most successful businesses within your
technology. Unfortunately, these methods are same niche or audience demographic, and
far from perfect; additionally, the data required start with them. Reputable digital marketing
to effectively protect against click fraud puts agencies, even for adult and other exclusive
any network other than Google’s at a distinct websites, will usually be listed with the Better
disadvantage in today’s internet setup. Business Bureau. Find out everything you can
about them in advance, including ratings by
There are a few steps you can take to help past customers. Investigate assertions of
protect your advertising account from PPC click fraud closely, and determine if any legal
fraud: action is currently being mounted against the
network. Networks are frequently sued over
Use Pay-per-action advertising click fraud, even if it isn’t their fault, due to the
Networks difficulty of going after the scammers directly.
With pay-per-action networks, which
Hire the Services of a Third
developed as an offshoot of pay-per-click Party Protection Service
technology, a user must do something in
addition to simply clicking on an ad before Third party firms offer a range of services
a transaction is processed. If this action is which are designed to detect click fraud in
not undertaken, the click does not count. action. These might include Javascript, tracking
This technique, which is designed to deter pixels and cookies, which are placed on the
fraudulent activity, is not foolproof: apps websites which display your ads. This allows
and bots can work around it, but the damage for the gathering of information about those
is still mitigated significantly. It’s also far who click on your ads, information that can be
less convenient to defraud these networks, difficult (or prohibitively expensive) to acquire
which discounts many casual perpetrators of after the fact. This can be very useful in picking
cybervandalism. up on patterns in clicks, which consistently
result in no substantive interaction.
The “action” associated with PPA advertising
may be almost anything. Before the network Third party firms provide you with detailed
acknowledges the click, the end-user might information, forming a strong case for action
have to sign up for a newsletter. This would by your advertising network, including
require the provision of a unique email address, reimbursement. If a case results in litigation,
acknowledging terms of service, and the use of the evidence is admissable in court. The
Captcha technology. The user might also (or solution is not perfect: typically, it doesn’t
alternatively) be required to make a purchase, cover an entire advertising network, and the
invest money, navigate between a certain traffic which passes through tagged ads is only
number of pages, or simply spend a certain a fraction of the whole. This means that they
amount of time on the destination website. don’t always get the big picture, particularly
Only once these terms are met will the click be with larger and better-organized frauds.
counted.
As a general rule, this is a much more
Do Your Research Before You affordable solution than trying to simply
Bid absorb the damage, and is strongly advised in
particular for individuals who suspect that they
Too often, a gleaming Web presence or a are already being targeted by PPC fraud.
list of past clients is all someone will look for
before bidding for an ad spot on a network.
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