| Impression fraud is a special case of click fraud. | | | | suddenly back in business, while Cindy has to keep |
| The prototypical impression fraudster is the | | | | up somehow. Remember, it's almost November |
| competitor who resorts to unfair means to gain | | | | and she has to sell off her trees rather soon. |
| an advantage. His primary motivation is to reduce | | | | Anecdotal evidence suggests that the loss from |
| the ranking of his competitor, and then save | | | | this activity may well run into thousands of dollars |
| himself money by inserting his own ad at a lower | | | | for larger advertisers(maybe when Cindy Lou |
| rate. Another possible motivation may be a | | | | Trees Inc. goes nationwide). |
| hit-and-run operation(random act of violence). | | | | How to Prevent your Self from Impression |
| Given the potentially devastating consequences it | | | | Fraud? |
| could have on a person's web site return on | | | | For impression fraud to be effective it has to |
| marketing investment, it could even be a | | | | happen at relatively high volumes(usually |
| disgruntled employee. | | | | accompanied by a "traffic spike"). The result will |
| To illustrate the mechanics and motivation of Let's | | | | be lots and lots of impressions and a very low |
| call this individual Grinch. Assume that Cindy | | | | CTR. Also, if its done for competitive reason, |
| Lou(our protagonist) has an advertisement for | | | | Grinch may identify himself (if you are really |
| Christmas trees running on google ad words. | | | | keeping tabs on things) because he has to switch |
| Cindy Lou's Pay Per Clickadvertisement has been | | | | his ads on and off. Reporting it to Google |
| doing rather well, getting a lot of click throughs. | | | | immediately will help but will not get you any |
| She doesn't have to bid a whole bunch to rank | | | | compensation. Google will still charge you more |
| high on the sponsored links because the position is | | | | money for ad placement in a certain position. The |
| a function of bid price and Click Through Ratio. | | | | impression fraud attack is extremely insidious, |
| She is getting decent traffic through her PPC | | | | because even though the consequences can |
| campaign. The traffic is very focused, a large | | | | severely affect the return on investment ( ROI), |
| number of visitors end up converting. The trees | | | | Google's policies don't allow refunds to take place. |
| are moving off the lot and things are shaping up | | | | The take home point is that you have to keep |
| rather fine. Grinch too has an advertisement | | | | tabs on the traffic, including traffic that is not |
| running. Unfortunately (for Grinch), his | | | | getting to your site. It is imperative for you to |
| advertisement is not getting a lot of clicks. In fact, | | | | use a web metrics product on a periodic(and |
| his CTR is so dismal that he has to pay ever | | | | frequent basis). A lot of times, we see people |
| increasing sums just to keep it displayed. His ROI | | | | invest in a log analyzer or even a hosted web |
| is not that great given his higher cost base for | | | | metrics application without devoting time and |
| the PPC bid. He does not like the fact that Cindy's | | | | resources to get actionable data. If you are |
| campaign is doing rather well. Not one bit! So he | | | | limited in terms of resources, you should be able |
| does something devious. | | | | to set alarms through your web analytics package |
| Grinch toggles off his own PPC ads and then does | | | | and should be able to receive alerts. Ask your |
| a lot of searches for keywords appropriate to | | | | vendor if they have the ability to upload your |
| Christmas trees. He searches on google, and asks | | | | AdWords data into your web metrics account. |
| his friends to search too. Only he never clicks on | | | | You have to reconcile the data from what your |
| Cindy Lou's ad. He runs his campaign for a few | | | | historical CTR has been to your current CTR, and |
| days, and Cindy sees her CTR go down and she | | | | your costs. It will help to level the playing field, |
| is at the bottom of the heap. It's now down to a | | | | calculate your effective ROI, and may even allow |
| level where Grinch sees a level playing field and | | | | you to compare google with competing services |
| steps in toggling his PPC ad back on. Grinch is | | | | available from Yahoo, MSN and Ask Jeeves. |