Adsense Revenue Tips

PPC marketing or pay per click marketing is the most popular method of advertisement employed by various websites on the Internet. PPC marketing may often be referred to as pay for position, cost per click or pay for performance. But regardless of the term used, PPC marketing is the online advertiser’s medium of choice for promoting products and services to online consumers.

PPC marketing is beneficial to both the advertiser and the consumer. Advertisers using PPC marketing only need to pay for the actual click throughs linked to their sites from search engines. At the same time as consumers are relieved of having to get annoying emails or pop-up ads for products and services.

When an online consumer searches for a specific product or service on the Internet, corresponding PPC marketing ads are also displayed alongside the results generated by the search engine. This forms a highly targeted consumer group that is more likely to purchase a specific product or service. In addition, websites get to limit their advertisement costs with the use of PPC marketing. PPC marketing is truly a winning solution for both parties.

Possible drawbacks of PPC marketing

Despite the obvious advantages of PPC marketing, there are possible drawbacks that can cancel out its benefits. One of the most common problems associated with PPC marketing is the inexperience of many people attempting to use this profitable advertisement method. Simply submitting PPC marketing ads to a search engine such as google, does not make up the entire campaign.

PPC marketing requires a calculated and systematic approach to setting up ads. PPC marketing involves the use of keywords and biddings in order to get top placement on a search engine. Getting top search engine placement helps boost traffic to a website that can easily translate into profit.

Without the necessary experience and knowledge to carry out a typical PPC marketing ad, may turn into an expensive campaign that does not convert into profit. PPC marketing ads also require continuous funding, as discontinued payments will also result in discontinued ads. This can be unfavorable for a website that has already built high rankings with their PPC marketing ads.

Bidding on keywords can also be quite costly, as the growing number of websites on the web struggle against each other to bid on the most popular keyword for their PPC marketing ad. Obviously small business websites are at a disadvantage here since big business websites are able to pay more for popular keywords related to their site. This is because most small businesses only set aside a small portion of their capital for advertisement, putting them at a disadvantage.

Running an effective PPC marketing campaign

There are a number of things that a website should consider when running an effective PPC marketing campaign. It is important to develop a marketing plan in order to get the most return on investment from PPC marketing. Selecting the most appropriate keywords that relate to the site’s business is essential in PPC marketing.

However, simply choosing the most popular keywords does not necessarily translate into profit. Selecting more specific keywords that will put a site within the first ten results of a search also gets greater awareness from online consumers. In addition, it doesn’t cost as much as getting the top spot for PPC marketing.

It is also important that a website constantly monitors the performance of their PPC marketing campaign. This will help the site modify any existing PPC marketing ad to make it more productive. At the same time any PPC marketing ad that has not proven effective can be immediately discontinued. Altering PPC marketing ads is a continuous process that many websites do in order to increase their return on investment.

Getting professional help with PPC marketing

The popularity of PPC marketing has given rise to professionals offering PPC marketing services for small and big businesses. Hiring a professional PPC marketing company is advisable for a small business without experience in PPC marketing. Most PPC marketing companies offer reasonable rates for their services and at the same time produce acceptable results.

A PPC marketing professional can attend to all the details commonly involved in a PPC marketing campaign. Handling a PPC marketing campaign is a time consuming process that can be overwhelming for a small business. A PPC marketing professional can help set up a PPC marketing campaign and later on train someone from within the business to handle it to ensure its continued success.

PPC search engine advertising is by far the most affordable form of advertising available. PPC search engine advertising is a flourishing business that by 2008 is expected to reach $ 8 billion. PPC search engine advertising is about producing leads. Creating leads will help potential buyers find the specific website that will provide them with the product or service they need.

However, PPC search engine advertising does not end there. It is important to understand that although PPC search engine advertising generates leads, it is also important for users to find relevant information at the website they are directed to. Information is a valuable asset in PPC search engine advertising that is often left unchecked by many websites. Keep in mind that users are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that provided them with the necessary information they needed in the first place.

Qualified traffic with PPC search engine advertising

One of the benefits of PPC search engine advertising is that it provides qualified traffic to a specific website. Users that click on a PPC ad are those in search of a particular product or service. This helps eliminate unnecessary clicks from non-prospective buyers that only produce expenditures not profits. PPC search engine advertising is also the fastest way to get a reasonable return on investment.

A bidding process is used to establish the price of a specific keyword. In general, the budget for PPC search engine advertising may be a $100 to $100,000 depending on the number of keywords used. These prices can skyrocket in just minutes as more and more sites bid for the same keyword thus causing the prices to jack up.

PPC ads are placed alongside search engine results to which they are relevant. The highest bids for a specific keyword or phrase gets top billing on the search engine results page. Getting top placement provides greater odds for a PPC ad to get clicked by a qualified searcher.

Elements of PPC search engine advertising

PPC search engine advertising involves three basic elements; constant monitoring, response analysis and refinement as the essential factors involved in PPC search engine advertising. Proper management of PPC search engine advertising can result in big profits for a website.

PPC search engine advertising makes it possible for sites to monitor the productivity of each PPC ad they place. This gives a site the opportunity to turn off any PPC ad that is not performing at its best. PPC search engine advertising provides the most economical way for a site to advertise on the World Wide Web.

The cost entailed in PPC search engine advertising is dictated by the clicks made on a particular PPC ad. The number of clicks made on a PPC ad is subtracted from the initial amount paid by the business to a search engine company. To minimize cost and maximize return on investment, a business will have to regularly monitor its PPC search engine advertising campaign.

How to use PPC search engine advertising

Many businesses are unable to get the most out of their PPC search engine advertising campaign. PPC search engine advertising involves a lot more than just bidding on the highest keywords. Information is a main concern of many online users.

Providing online users with relevant information they need will help bring about a more long-term relationship with an online user that will more likely result in a sale.
Information provided to online users may be in the form of a newsletter or e-zine that online users would likely sign up for. Sign-ups may be enough to cover the expenses of a PPC search engine advertising campaign.

Sign-ups also help generate leads for websites as they build opt in list from qualified online searchers who clicked their PPC ad. Getting personal information from qualified online searchers can be done in a variety of ways such as offering freebies for surveys or signing up for newsletters.

PPC search engine advertising is a continuous process that requires hands on supervision and a thorough understanding of PPC search engines. Businesses may opt to hire the services of a professional or do PPC search engine advertising with in-house experts. Whatever course of action is selected, a business is sure to get a huge return on investment with PPC search engine advertising.

So, your website has been built. Your content is in place. Your pages have gone live. The ads are coming in. The marketing strategies are in place. And you may even be enjoying a few clicks every now and then.

This doesn’t mean that the work is done.

Often, as is the case, webmasters create multiple website, with each enrolled under the same AdSense account. The rationale behind this is quite simple. If one website can pull $10 per day on clicks, how much more will 20 websites pull? This is a sound plan – nay – a very good one. It is a system that is advised by most AdSense experts actually.

But to immediately jump into the creation of another website once the previous one goes live is the most fatal mistake any AdSense-oriented online businessman can make!

The reason?

It’s because a website will take time to stabilize. You may meet some initial success, but there is no guarantee that such a success shall be sustainable. You will have to work to maintain that success. If you’re going to leave the website behind once it goes live so that you may focus on other sites, you will be taking a big risk.

Test, Test And Test Some More

This is where the value of tracking tools come in. Don’t let this requisite intimidate you. Tracking the progress of your website is easy, and it can be fun. You don’t even have to invest on tracking tools. Your web hosting service has one. Simply go to the admin panel and you will be able to learn some interesting and important statistics relevant to the performance of your website.

Of course, advanced tracking tools will provide more advanced statistics which will greatly help you discover where your website is performing well and where it needs some adjustments and improvements. But for the time being, you can stick with the basics.

The Things To Look Out For

There are some things which you should keep an eye on. These things determine the success of your website’s campaign, and realizing how well (or how bad) they are performing will give you a fair idea on what to do next.

* The number of visitors you are generating per day. Traffic is the lifeblood of your website. You should be aiming for, at least, 2,000 visitors per day. If you’re getting a number less than this, then take it as your cue to intensify your marketing tactics.
* How long your visitors are staying on your website. If your visitors leave as soon as they arrive, then there’s something wrong with your pages. Either they are unattractive, or the content is so poorly created or presented that it instantly turns off your guests.
* Where your visitors are coming from. This will tell you if you’re marketing in the right places. If you have advertised in places that don’t pick up traffic, abandon that route and focus on the places that provide what you need.

Another important statistic that you should be aware of is the number of clicks you are getting. To know this, you just have to regularly check your AdSense account. On the admin page, relevant stats pertaining to your clicks will appear. If you’re not getting enough clicks, then you should adjust your ad type selection and the presentation on your web pages.

A Fascinating Alternative

If you desire to acquire in depth statistics but aren’t ready to invest on high end tools just yet, you may want to give www.google.com/analytics a try. It’s a free service that provides all the numbers you need, plus more.

You will even have a breakdown of the geographical regions where your visitors are coming from!

This will most certainly give you a lot of great ideas on how to improve your campaign.

The engine of your AdSense campaign is your website, specifically, what can be found IN your website: content. By now, you have heard of the saying “content is king in the World Wide Web.” There is a lot of truth to this statement. For starters, the internet is fueled by a need for information. Whether people want to know the latest about their favorite rock stars, or the hottest stock market tips, or the latest happenings in foreign lands, they use the internet to supply themselves with the information they need.

Your content is integral. It can determine the success or failure of your AdSense campaign.

These being said, here are five qualities of content which you should always, always aim for. Do not undermine their importance. Your website will just appear amateurish if these qualities are not met.

* Your content should be highly informative. This is a given. People, as we have discussed, look for information. If you have the information they need, they will come to you. Hence, your content should not be filled with junk. Often, webmasters resort to keyword stuffing at the expense of the quality of their content. This should be avoided at all cost! Invest on information and your campaign will be rewarded justly.
* Your content should be of high quality. By this, I mean well-written. No, I’m not talking about a Shakespearian work. Instead, your content should conform to standards when it comes to writing for the web. This means short sentences, short paragraphs, bulleting and numbering as much as possible, minimal usage of technical jargons that not many would understand, and great optimization of negative space to allow your readers’ eyes to rest. In all cases, grammar should be perfect.
* Your content should be unique. This is important for two reasons. First, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), your web page will get de-indexed if it will display duplicate content. By duplicate content, we mean content that has been published elsewhere in the World Wide Web, exactly as it is. You wouldn’t want this to happen. 80% of your traffic will come from the search engines after all. Second, if your content is unique, people who desire the information you can provide will have no other option but to seek you out. This is excellent in garnering, and maintaining, the traffic that your online business needs.
* Your content should be consistent with the subject of your website. Otherwise, your visitors would just feel lost, and they’ll start thinking if they’re in the right place. You will want to keep their attention, and this means that the content in each of your pages should be logically consistent and relevant to one another.
* Your content should be well-organized. This means a user-friendly and intuitive interface that will help your visitors navigate easily through your website. Again, the purpose is to keep your visitors in your website. The longer they’re there, the more chances there will be that they’ll get to read your ads and click on the same. This is your ultimate purpose.

As you can see, succeeding with AdSense greatly depends on the quality of your content and how well it is presented. It’s not just about the page design, the choice of ad types, the usage of keywords and the likes. It’s also about the meat of your website: your content.

Your content is your number one investment. If you’re going to spend for the same through outsourcing, make sure that the freelancer you will hire will provide nothing but the best content possible.

Your online business depends on it.

How much you will earn from AdSense does not depend only on the traffic you will generate for your web pages and the click through rate you will manage to achieve. If the cost per click, or CPC, is absurdly low, you will never realize full profitability.

Imagine gaining 1,000 clicks per day, which is an amazing number. But if the CPC is a miserable $0.01 per click, you’d only get $10 per day. Compare this to an ad which provides $0.05 per click. The difference is an immediate $40 per day!

This is a significant difference which should tell you how important CPC is for your AdSense campaigns.

The Problem With CPC

Of the 3 components of a successful AdSense campaign, CPC is the factor that is least within your control. If you already have a website which you want to enroll under the program, you are more or less limited to the existing ads available for the said subject. It’s a matter of luck. Do these ads have high CPCs? Or pathetically low CPCs that are not worth the effort?

However, if you are to build a website from scratch, you can focus your search for an appropriate subject by checking our the CPC of the ads that cater to the same. Two years ago, this was virtually impossible. Nowadays, there are two ways by which you can determine the going CPC for a great number of ads.

Tactic No. 1: Trial And Error

The first tactic is through a process of trial and error. Don’t let this phrase scare you. It’s only called as such because you will need an initial idea on what subject to pursue. Once you have such an idea, you just need to research on the going rates of the bids for the keywords relevant to such a topic.

There are 2 ways by which you can do this.

1. Create an account at www.google.com/adwords . AdWords is the AdSense counterpart for advertisers. Advertisers bid on selected keywords, and the appearance of their links will depend on the same. The higher the bid for a particular keyword, the higher the CPC you can gain from it. It’s just a matter of finding keywords with high bids.

2. Check out the bids at http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool . Overture is a rival service, but it is partnered with another big search engine, Yahoo, so more or less, the bids therein will reflect the bids over at AdWords.

Tactic 2: Use Existing Services

If trial and error isn’t for you, then there are some techniques which will provide more convenience.

Nowadays, a lot of enterprising online businessmen do the research for you. They create a list of the hottest keywords with the least number of competition, as well as the CPCs for the same. You don’t have to study the markets involved. Everything will be handed to you and you just have to choose among the topics that will be given.

Also, there are a number of websites going live that offer updated lists of the hottest keywords with the highest CPCs. Some of them are free. Others you have to pay for.

One such website is www.adsensearena.com . Its existence has been kept a secret by those in the know, but the information the website provides is impeccably accurate. You may want to check it out regularly, as the webmaster always updates the website with the latest developments in the field.

CPC may not be within our control, but this doesn’t mean you’re powerless. If you’re starting from scratch and you wish to build a highly profitable AdSense website, then finding the topic that fetches high CPC ads should be one of your primary concerns.

It’s not enough that you generate a lot of visitors to your website. If those visits do not convert into clicks, then your AdSense campaign is doomed. It’s not automatic that every visitor to your website will click on your ads. No. That will be a critical error to assume as such.

The simple solution would seem to be: lead visitors into clicking the ads displayed on your pages.

But no. This is not allowed by Google’s TOS. You will be prohibited from asking your visitors to click on the ads. The consequences are dire indeed. Your earnings will be held. Worse, your account will be terminated.

So, how do you improve your click through rate?

Remedy Against Ad Blindness

Your number one enemy will be ad blindness, or ad numbness as many people call it. It seems that visitors have become accustomed to seeing ads displayed on web pages, so much so that they have become immune to them. Yes, a great majority of these web users do not pay attention to the ads they see.

Overcoming ad blindness should be one of your primary goals. And how can this be done?

The number one tactic is to make the ads blend with the web page. The ads should not appear as distinct areas of your website. Instead, they should appear as if they are part and parcel of the overall design.

You are given the option to choose the color of the box, the ad texts, and the links. Do your best to make each element blend well with the rest of the web page. This will improve your CTR dramatically.

Choose The Right Ad Format

Banners? Skyscrapers? Text links? The choices are many, but not all of them will provide the CTR you need for success. The fact of the matter is, your CTR is greatly dependent on your choice of ad format.

There is no definitive answer as to what ad format works best. It really depends on how your web pages are laid out. However, here are some tips which would help you select the right ad format for your own enterprise:

* If your menu bar is placed in an unconventional area, such as the bottom of the page or the right side thereof, you can try to use text links on the upper portion of the page, or text links on the left panel. This way, the text links will appear like directors to the other areas of your website.

* Many claim that using banners (468 x 60) and half banners (234 x 60) are more adjustable when it comes to pages that don’t use dividers.

* Medium and large rectangles, on the other hand, are the favorites of many content website owners. Their positioning is vital. They must be placed under the title of the article, right before the body thereof, and always at the upper fold of the page so that they will immediately be seen.

Images Or Texts?

One interesting question is whether or not you should use ads with images or ads with pure text. The answer is quite straightforward: avoid images.

Images have long been associated with advertising, and people by nature stay away from being subjected to sales pitches. If the ads display images, they’d immediately know it’s an ad and chances are, they won’t click on it.

You wouldn’t want this to happen.

So stick with text ads because with them, your visitors will be compelled to read what they are about, and this can result in more clicks and a higher CTR.

Traffic is the lifeblood of every online enterprise. Any veteran internet marketer will tell you this. But such is doubly true if you’re enrolled with the AdSense program. The success or failure of your campaign will greatly depend on how many visitors you’ll be able to lead to your web pages.

Without visitors, you won’t have any clicks. It’s as simple as that.

Traffic is like the fuel to a car, the car being your online business built around AdSense. You need to supply fuel to the engine to make it run. It is that vital. It is that essential.

There are many ways by which you can generate traffic for your website. Here are 8 of them.

1. On page SEO. Search engine optimization refers to the tactics employed to make your web pages friendlier to the search engine spiders. With good SEO practices, you will be in a better position to place high in search engine results. On page SEO refers to the tactics you can employ on your web pages themselves. This is focused on the selection and usage of the right keywords.

2. Off page SEO. Off page SEO, on the other hand, refers to techniques you can employ outside of your web pages, after they have gone live. This practice is generally concerned with increasing your link popularity. With a high link popularity comes a high page rank. And with a high page rank comes a better chance of landing on the first page of relevant search engine results.

3. Article marketing. Submitting articles to as many article directories as possible is considered by many as the premiere internet marketing strategy. With every article you will submit, you are allowed to include a resource box. This resource box should introduce yourself as the author and should include a link to your website. Articles are picked up by many websites and even print publications, making you reach a wider audience fast. Not only that, it will also work wonders for your link popularity.

4. Forum marketing. Joining online communities relevant to the subject of your website is also a great way to get traffic. With your account, you are allowed a signature box where you can include your website’s URL. This signature box will appear in every post you will make.

5. Blog and ping. Maintaining a blog and updating it regularly is a great way to add some direct and indirect traffic to your main website. Blogs have their own communities, and because they are excellent and simplified content management systems by themselves, they place highly in search engine results. Having your URL appear on the entries will give a boost to your link popularity as well as your page rank. Ping after every entry you publish to have faster results. Simply use the free tool over at www.pingomatic.com .

6. Blog and tag. Pinging isn’t the only way to maximize your blogging strategy. Nowadays, user-drive categorization systems are the norm. Head over at www.technorati.com and categorize your blog under the appropriate “tag.”

7. Press releases. Writing a press release and submitting the same to the many press wires online, such as www.prweb.com , is another excellent strategy to use. Submit a press release announcing the publication of your website or any other campaigns you may initiate and you’d be able to garner traffic from both the World Wide Web and the real world!

8. Offline marketing. The strategy that is least resorted to, but one of the most efficient, is offline marketing. You can advertise your website in newspapers, magazines, bumper stickers, t-shirts and the likes. This will increase awareness for your website and result in a lot of visitors gracing your web pages.

Before starting out with a Google AdSense campaign, there are some things which you must learn. Primary of these are the three prime components of a successful venture in this field. These three components make or break an AdSense campaign, and if you’re not careful, your websites may not be able to pull the numbers you have come to expect.

These three components come from the following formula for success:

Impressions x CTR x CPC = AdSense earnings

Don’t let the formula above intimidate you. It’s quite simple, really. The unfamiliarity of the terms will soon be remedied after this article.

The three components, as you can see from the formula above, determine how much earnings you’re going to gain from the program. Ultimately, you want your campaign to be self-sufficient and automated. You want passive income from a source that you can leave behind for a few hours, if not a few days. For this to happen, you must ensure that the earnings will be consistent, and this can be guaranteed if the components are likewise consistent in their performance.

On Impressions

Impressions refer to the number of page views your website is pulling. In layman’s terms, the concept of impressions is synonymous with traffic. The higher the volume of traffic you’re generating for your website, the higher chances you’ll have of gaining a lot of clicks.

There are many traffic generating strategies you can pursue. They are very easy to learn and implement. Here are the most popular of these techniques:

* Article marketing, or the distribution of original, high quality articles to article directories, with each article having a link to your website.
* Search engine optimization, both on page and off page, to ensure that your URL will appear prominently in relevant searches. 80% of the traffic you’ll be able to generate for your website will come from the search engines.
* Building your link popularity. Link popularity refers to the number of links to your website that appear in the World Wide Web.

There are more, of course, which we will be discussing in detail come the next lessons.

On CTR

CTR is an abbreviation of Click Through Rate. This refers to the percentage of your visitors who actually click on the ads displayed on your web pages. If you’re pulling 100 visitors per day, and 50 of them click on your ads, then you’d have a 50% CTR.

It goes without saying that the higher your CTR is, the more earnings you can gain from the AdSense program. Attaining a high CTR should be one of your primary goals in this field.

CTR is often determined by the placement of your ads and your choice of ad types. Some ad types are simply more clickable than others. And there are specific places on your web page where they will become more visible and clickable.

On CPC

Of the three components, CPC is the one which is least within your control. CPC refers to the Cost Per Click, the amount that each click will fetch. This is more or less pegged. Some clicks cost a mere cent. Others cost a couple of dollars.

Indeed, choosing the topics that fetch ads with high CPC will be the apparent solution. But this is only possible if you’re building a website from scratch, and you’re trying to find a subject that will gain as much earnings. It is not applicable for existing websites catering to an existing topic that has existing sponsors paying a corresponding amount per click.

Nonetheless, if you can determine the CPC of certain ads, and if you’re just starting to focus on AdSense as a viable income stream, it would work to your advantage if you’d research the going rates for existing ads.

A lot of people are looking for additional ways to make money on their free time. Such earnings will help augment the bills they have to pay, after all, and will ease up a great burden from the salaries they are receiving from their day jobs.

In the quest to discover new earning opportunities, quite a number of enterprising individuals have unearthed an amazing venture that will make them earn a good amount of money – often, better than their regular wages – without having a hands-on approach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In fact, a lot of these people claim that it only takes them an average of an hour or two per day to ensure that such an opportunity will perform well and will deliver the promises it offers.

We’re talking about AdSense, Google’s pay per click (PPC) program for webmaster.

The Sense Of AdSense

AdSense is a pay per click program. This means what it says. Once a webmaster enrolls under the AdSense program, he’d be assigned a specific code. The webmaster will only have to copy and paste this code on his website, with a few adjustments which are a matter of preference, and advertisements will be displayed on his web pages.

Now, every time a visitor clicks on these ads, the webmaster will earn a certain amount.

Easy enough, right?

But AdSense offers so much more than what it appears to be. The fact is, AdSense has COMPLETELY revolutionized the way by which webmasters earn online. Whereas before, webmasters relied on soliciting their own advertisements (which was difficult to do considering that they have to establish and prove the popularity of the website and they have to find willing sponsors), nowadays, thanks to AdSense, getting advertisements is as easy as applying for an account over at www.google.com/adsense .

All About Contextual Advertising

The great thing about Google AdSense is that it will NOT send out advertisements that are unrelated to the subject of your web page. Instead, AdSense employs a system called contextual advertising. This means that the ads that will be displayed on your pages are relevant to the topic you are discussing.

How can AdSense determine this?

The short answer: through keywords.

It is a fact that most of the time, particular keywords are used in relation to a discussion on a particular subject. When talking about dogs, keywords such as “dog health,” “dog food,” and “dog grooming” are often used, for example. When talking about video games, “PS2,” “Playstation 2,” and “Xbox 360” are often the keywords mentioned.

AdSense pinpoints the predominant keywords for every page and displays the ads that are relevant to them.

Succeeding With AdSense

Any veteran AdSense webmaster will tell you that, though it’s not impossible, succeeding with the program with just one website will be very, very difficult.

The way to go is to have multiple websites enrolled under the same account.

Imagine a website that garners 100 clicks per day, with $0.05 per click. That’s just $5 per day, or $150 per month.

But if you have 10 websites pulling the same numbers each and every month, you’d have a substantial earning of $1,500 every 30 days. This is what makes AdSense a profitable venture, one which has not escaped the attention of internet savvy individuals in the past 2 years or so.

And this is what you should aim for: a multitude of mini-websites enrolled under your AdSense account, with each website capable of pulling a sustainable and substantial amount of earnings. This cannot be done overnight, please remember that. But with some effort and the right training, you’d be able to achieve this goal at the soonest possible time.

Identifying and tracking examples of click fraud is the first step to eradicating the problem. Click fraud is an enormous drain on the resources of advertisers operating on a national and international scale, estimated to occupy around 30% of all pay per click advertising spend. With so much at stake, its no wonder the search engines are investing so much time and effort into devising solutions.

One way in which Search Engines and other pay per click programme providers have attempted to curb the growing click fraud problem is through introducing IP address repetition algorithms. These formulae are designed to pick up on suspicious click patterns emanating from a singular IP address, which can help to uncover the existence of click farms and competitor-led sabotage, as well as identifying potential fraudsters at source.

However, there is an array of problems with this method of attempting to identify the fraudsters. Firstly, fraudsters logging on through a dialup modem, DSL line or cable modem can almost completely bypass this check, as with every new online session, a new IP address is generated. Furthermore, there is an extensive range of software available to alter IP addresses, which again can be used for ‘cheating’ the algorithm. Cookie and session tracking are other methods by which search engines can attempt to uncover potential fraudulent activity, but again there are ways around these for the fraudsters.

More comprehensive software is being developed which profiles and reports on the browsing habits of each click-through to enable companies to track and monitor suspicious behavior, although this could be seen by many as intrusive and ineffective as anything on a small scale is still likely to go unnoticed, based on the vast coverage of ads across the internet.

The problem of click fraud recently hit the headlines with a class action raised against Google, prompting Google to offer $90million as a potential settlement. Perhaps an acceptance of their responsibilities, Google’s offer goes some way to suggest the extent of click fraud, and its vast costs to the internet economy.

There are a number of self-help remedies that can be implemented to keep an organization out of trouble. The first of these remedies is the reliance on search engine optimization and organic listings. If a site is well and fully optimized, it could eventually realize a ranking that another site is willing to pay $2.50 a click for. Similarly, with organically high rankings there are no clickthrough rates, therefore the costs associated with PPC are not applicable. Although the process is significantly more laborious and takes significantly longer to see results, the SEO process is much cheaper in the long run, and with an estimated 25-30% of all clicks being performed fraudulently, an organically high listing can save money which would otherwise be drained by click fraud for more beneficial reinvestment.

Year on year, as the pay per click advertising market continues to grow and expand, surely click fraud will follow suit. Unless an effective means of preventing click fraud is developed and successfully implemented, buyers will steadily lose confidence in the advertising medium and turn to more effective, less wasteful marketing methods, which would seriously hit the search engines and could potentially threaten the online economy as a whole.