ClickTracks finds Click Fraud and Problem Campaigns, Too

Are you paying for clicks that don't bring results?

Click fraud occurs when a person or a programmed script incurs a “pay-per-click” charge event for you (the advertiser) by causing the appearance of a legitimate visitor to your web site. Unchecked, click fraud can account for up to 20% of the average pay-per-click advertising budget. Since you're probably increasing your online advertising, you need a simple-to-use click fraud reporting system that helps you pinpoint poorly performing campaigns and campaigns that are affected by click fraud.

The majority of decisions related to suspected click fraud result in ad modification—which is what happens when an ad just isn't performing like you'd hoped it would. That's why ClickTracks highlights both ads that may present possible click fraud, along with ads that are poorly performing. And why not? You, the advertiser are wasting money either way, so providing a method to detect both seems completely intuitive.

What makes ClickTracks so Special?

At ClickTracks, we're no strangers to taking web log files and page-tagged data and calculating statistically significant events. When it comes to click fraud analysis, we enhance our existing technology that highlights significant changes in visitor behavior on a web site. Instead of trying to identify the fraudster (what good is that?), ClickTracks indicates which campaigns are receiving worthless or suspicious visits and provides supporting data to request a refund or credit for those clicks. It's really very simple, and does not require hours or professional services and consulting.

ClickTracks' avoids problems inherent in other click fraud detection products. Other services try to identify the fraudster by asking you to pool your visitor data with other web site owners-- including your competitors! ClickTracks focuses on identifying campaigns that are victims of click fraud. Other systems are based solely on JavaScript detection which cannot look back in time (before implementation) or detect click fraud robots. ClickTracks uses log file analysis which can look back in time and can also catch robots. Lastly, other systems that are based solely on ROI analysis will be less accurate because it could be months before revenue is associated with a campaign. ClickTracks click fraud detection considers revenue events, but combines it with other points of data across all campaigns.

How Click Fraud Detection Works:

ClickTracks looks back over history and learns what a 'normal' visitor looks like on your web site. ClickTracks then bases its detection on a number of measurements taken for each campaign, and then a comparison of that data across all other campaigns . Measurements and comparisons for each campaign include, but are not limited to:

• Number of sessions
• Revenue conversion rate
• Total cost of campaign
• Number of single page sessions
• Number of different IP addresses
• Number of clicks from a particular country
• Number of sessions with no referrer
• Number of sessions that reach any goal page

This statistical technique brings problem campaigns and ads to your attention. Whether it's click fraud or just unqualified visitors, you're empowered to make smart choices.

When You Do Find Click Fraud

So what happens if the only reasonable explanation for the activity is click fraud? In this case, ClickTracks goes the extra step, providing you with an Excel spreadsheet that's ready-to-submit to the appropriate PPC provider. With one click, you can export a precise list of each request from every session, with supporting data such as:

• Specific Campaign ID
• Landing page with all parameters
• Date & time of visit
• Visitor Client IP address
• Country
• Referring domain
• Full referrer information
• Number of pages visited
• Total Time on site
• Revenue
• List of all pages visited with time

Problem campaigns are sometimes click fraud, and sometimes they're simply poorly performing ads. Either way, you need to be able to quickly and easily discern (among potentially thousands of campaigns) which ads are having problems. At the point that problematic campaigns have been brought to your attention, ClickTracks Click Fraud report gives you the power to decide if click fraud is really occurring, and most importantly, to do something about it.