Google Adwords Reports Reveal Invalid Clicks
Published September 10, 2007 by Garry Przyklenk Google Adwords
Those same Content Placement and Search Query reports introduced back in June and July by Google Adwords have a very important secondary role to the search marketer. For the last month or so, I’ve been reporting on how to increase return on ad spend by utilizing Google Reports and your own analytics program of choice, but I put off the news on invalid click detection until today. Content Placement and Search Query reports can be your best friend in detecting and reporting click fraud on your Adwords account.
Google Adwords’ “Content Placement Report” is a powerful tool in fighting the war on invalid clicks on the content network because it tells you how where and when your ads were displayed, how many impressions their distribution resulted in and how many clicks were generated by that ad distribution. But what happens when the report exhibits undefined metrics, such as clicks outnumbering impressions? The answer is often quite simple – Click fraud.
Google Adwords, just as all other search engine marketing programs, base billing on the equation:
Keyword Cost = Clicks x Average Cost per Click
Clicks can only be generated if an ad is distributed and displayed on a content network placement and/or search query result page (SERP); i.e. an impression. So what happens if the Content Placement report indicates more clicks than impressions? Does it result from delayed reporting cycles? Is it click fraud?
Clicks outnumbering impressions will likely rear it’s ugly head again and again on each and every Content Placement report you run. Why? Because Adsense publishers like to line their pockets with invalid clicks. The temptation of free money – albeit insignificant at times – is worth being banned from Adsense for many. After reading this far in my post you might be up in arms; just wait, it gets better.
Upon exporting your Content Placement report into your favorite spreadsheet application, you can quickly set up an equation that tells you exactly which placements result in greater impressions than clicks, and even unlikely scenarios such as impressions equaling clicks, or ridiculously higher than average CTR. To find out how much money this is costing you, try setting up an “IF” statement that reads something like this:
=IF(clicks>impressions, keyword cost, 0) <- Definite click fraud
This statement will either return zero, or the probable amount of money Google should credit you for. Now, we can make this even more interesting if we consider most CTR never exceeds 20%, even for trademarked keywords. So, using the populated cells from my previous example, try inputting this statement:
=IF(CTR>0.2, keyword cost, 0) <- Likely click fraud
This statement will either return zero, or the likely amount of money Google should credit you for assuming you subscribe to my CTR theory. Content network click through rate is never realistically greater than 10%, even for monopolistic placements on highly targeted content-rich pages for exclusive-use trademarks in display ads.
Using the two formulas outlined above, you can quickly find fraudulent content network placements that cost you money on a monthly basis. To be fair, give Google a few weeks after month’s end prior to running these reports in greater detail, just in case the delayed statistics theory holds water (doubtful).
The best course of action in the long-run is to simply exclude pages with irregular click through rates. Excluding these sites in your content network placements is relatively easy, which is why I praise Google for finally implementing the Content Placement report. But let’s not give them too much credit just yet, because there is an uglier problem that has become an ever-present thorn in my side… the Search Query Report.
Google Adwords’ “Search Query Report” generates a list of the most popular search queries users have entered into the Google search engine that have triggered an ad, and expose which keywords Adwords matched these queries to in your campaigns. It’s a brilliant report because you can start off with a list of hundreds of broad match keywords that cost you a fortune and whittle them down into long-tail keywords that cost little and convert many. You might be thinking, what’s the bad news?
You might have guessed it… The Search Query report can also exhibit the same click fraud symptoms, as clicks sometimes outnumber impressions. When I first saw this errant activity, I asked my account representatives how this was possible. I more or less expect some measure of click fraud to occur on the Content Network but Google too? The jury is still out on this, but I’m hoping to finally get an answer tomorrow when not one, but FIVE Googlers visit the office tomorrow (stay tuned).
The take home message is simple. If you’re a larger advertiser on Adwords that regularly receives an account credit every month as a “Service Adjustment,” ensure that at least your conservative click fraud estimates are reimbursed to your satisfaction (i.e. the “definite”). Just don’t hold your breath for the “likely” because it can amount to anywhere between 5-20% of your monthly budget.
