Archive for February, 2008

In The Words of Alanis Morisette …

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

… isn’t it ironic.

My adwords campaign bidding on MFA related keywords was displayed on, yes you guessed it, an MFA.

I am not advertising on the content network, this was a click from one of Google’s trusted partners who are part of the search network. To me this is a garbage click of zero quality. I am going to attempt a refund request, but I am not holding my breathe. I am not sure I can even exclude this site, but I will try.

This is a essence of the click quality problem, I paid the rate for a high quality click from a search partner such as AOL but the click came from an Adsense for Domains MFA.

Here is a screen dump of the site, I’ll not give out the URL, they are not getting any traffic from me.

Seedy adwords for domain ads

I discovered this using the low quality techniques I employ in my consultancy services

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Adsense PIN Program

Monday, February 18th, 2008

My adsense PIN arrived in the post today, and whilst I am not running adsense ads on my blogs at the moment, I appreciate Google’s step to reduce content network click fraud.

Google has put a stop on account payouts until a PIN sent via surface mail is entered to your Adsense account.  The letter includes details on how to report PIN numbers sent to an address incorrectly.

Why I think Google has taken this step?

I believe that Google is suffering from a large number of illicit signups  for Adsense, and this process ensures that any accounts assigned to a physical address are real.

Any account which does not enter it’s PIN has the payout stopped.  I would be very interested to find out if accounts which are not activated have the clicks marked as invalid and refunds given to the advertiser, I doubt it.

The content network is increasingly providing low quality clicks, and this step by Google to remove fraudulent accounts can only be greated with open arms.

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Click Sentinel Click Fraud Solution

Saturday, February 16th, 2008

I thought I would bring this post back up from my archives, I thought Click Sentinel had dropped into the dead pool, and development had stopped, but it looks like click sentinel has risen from the ashes and a new version has been release, I look forward to seeing what they have to offer, and will bring you a full review when it arrives (note it was due for release in Jan 2008)

I came across a new product in the click fraud product portfolio called Click Sentinel.

It is one of the increasing number “community” click fraud products where data is collated from a number of advertisers to help gauge the real level of click fraud which we cannot get due to the lack of transparency from the search engines. I talk about this subject at greater length in my post Click Fraud Caring Sharing Few.

Click Sentinel is a javascript implementation of click fraud software.

I have not yet completed my review of the product but first impressions are a good product.

UPDATE: I have been using the tool and it is really good, but it looks like development has slowed and the promised IP address updates are not coming. This is a real pity, a community click fraud tools at this price is an excellent idea.

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What is Click Quality?

Monday, February 11th, 2008

I would like to lay down a definition as to what I think constitutes click quality.

In one short sentence, I would describe click quality as the factor which will turn a click into a conversion.  The lower the click quality , the less likely a conversion is going to happen.

A conversion is the end action for which the site was designed.  This can be a sale for an e-commerce enabled site, a sign-up to an e-mail subscription, a sales lead, or a click to another site for affiliate marketers.

What is a high quality click?

A high quality click comes from someone in your targeted region(s) who is motivated to buy your good or services.  This comes from a highly optimised campaign only displaying your ads in the locations and to the people who matter, this is the holy grail of PPC advertising.

Where are the low quality clicks from?

The low quality clicks from from a number of locations:

The conclusion to this post is very simple, reduce your low quality clicks as much as possible in increase your chances of conversion and increase your advertising return on investment.

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