A recent Business Week article highlights the dangers of pay-per-click. Popular products such as Google AdWords allow website owners to promote their website through advertisements that appear on relevant search result pages. This can be a powerful tool, particularly with the level of data provided on search phrase volume and budget control.
However, the most popular pay-per-click products also offer programs in which ads appear on third party websites. These partner programs are intended to broaden the reach of the advertisements by placing them on relevant sites. For example, on a sports message board, if a visitor goes to a message about the World Series, pay-per-click ads might appear within the message hawking World Series memorabilia.
The problems come with a high incentive for click fraud. Third party websites that run these ads receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the clicks. Pay-per-click companies have a high incentive to accept as many partners as possible to broaden the exposure of the ads, thus increasing the volume of clicks.
So what's to keep a third party website from methodically clicking on its own ads? While pay-per-click providers claim fraud safeguards, there really is no way to distinguish between a bona fide potential client and a person lining their pockets by clicking on their own ad. Some safeguards do exist, such as a limit on clicks coming from the same IP address. However, provided enough incentive, the unscrupulous find ways to spoof these safeguards.
Even third party programs aside, there will always be a certain percentage of irrelevant click throughs. You will pay for clicks from competitors, web designers, telemarketers and the bored. Imagine if you paid a few bucks per minute for a toll-free number only to get a bunch of junk calls.
My advice is to not participate in third party partner programs. Make sure that if you do a pay-per-click campaign, only allow your ad to appear on that search engine's search results. Also, set a budget so you won't get shocked by a huge bill at the end of the month. Finally, monitor your account closely. Checking it daily will help you know what's working and what's not. If you're paying big money and getting few inquiries, something fishy could be going on.
