The increasing phenomenon of click fraud is the bain of pay-per-click promotions. As has been stated previously, for each click by a user, the advertiser pays the company responsible for managing the advertising an amount that varies in relation to the sponsored keyword.

Unfortunately, not all clicks are made by truly interested users; an ever-increasing number of those unsuccessful clicks can be traced back to competitors, mercenaries, unsatisfied clients, sacked employees and pranksters.

Anyone who clicks on a pay-per-click promotional message without having any real interest in it represents a cost for the advertiser – in just a few days, that cost can mount up to thousands upon thousands of pounds. For this reason, it is always worth monitoring the clicks received from keyword advertising, in order to identify any issues as rapidly as possible.

The Web Analytics solution that supports the site can identify click fraud through the particular characteristics of fraudulent clicks, such as the IP addresses involved, and through behaviour such as repeated clicks, rapid browser closure and clicks so frequent that they could only have been made by automated systems.

Google has identified the phenomenon of fraudulent clicks and is engaged in efforts to combat them, including the reimbursement of advertisers for fraudulent clicks.

ImetriX Web Analytics is equipped with a dedicated report that makes it possible to identify click fraud accurately.