Click fraud is a major problem that threatens the pay-per-click industry. Big advertisers can lose tens of thousands through click fraud alone.
Click fraud happens when:
- A person clicks on the advertisements multiple times with no intention to buy anything
- Your competitor clicks on the ads to blow your advertisement budget
- A site owner clicks on his own ads to increase his revenue
- Programs called robots repeatedly visits the ad
If you advertise on pay-per-click heavily, keeping close tabs on where your clicks are coming from and possible fraudulent clicks reduces the probability that click fraud costs you big money. You also avoid getting shut down by the paid search programs of Google, Yahoo, or MSN for suspicious and excessive clicking on the ads.
Here’s the second free goody for you – a click fraud detection service from ClickFacts. The free account offers the following features:
- Statistics updated nightly
- Works with Google, Yahoo!, Enhance and Kanoodle
- Track multiple domains
- Geographic traffic breakdown
- Detect and deter click abuse
In exchange for providing the free service, they do place a small tracking beacon image on your site. The paid version offers support and more comprehensive reports and removes the tracking image on your site.