CPA Pay Per Click Fraud
http://pmrss.com/log/articles/351/1/CPA-Pay-Per-Click-Fraud
Pulsar Marketing
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By Pulsar Marketing
Published on 10/26/2007
Advertising software prevents CPA per lead and pay per click fraud. Welcome to Web -1.0.
Marketing Innovations to Combat Pay Per Click Fraud
If the mother of invention is 'necessity', then fraud is the step-child. Just as spin-offs and accessories follow new product creations, fraud keeps pace with new advertising technologies. Initially there was pay per click advertising, which naturally led to the birth of click fraud. Although it is the poorest Cost Per Action (CPA) option simply because it makes it easy for fraudsters to abuse, it is nonetheless still a popular way to advertise, particularly at search engines. It's equally popular with fraudulent affiliates of search engines.
Pay Per Click Fraud at 20% or Higher: A recent report stated that up to 20% or more of click activity may be fraudulent. Advertisers may be losing $2 to fraudsters out of every $10 they spend on per click advertising. The biggest problem with pay per click advertising, is that the advertising platform (search engine, marketing agency, affiliate network, etc) places too much trust in its affiliate partners. Unfortunately, the scent of easy to obtain, ill-gotten money, is too overpowering for some people. Instead of helping the search engines get targeted demographics to visit search engines, websites, etc, it's so much easier to simply click on the ads themselves so the advertisers have to pay for the clicks and subsequently the affiliate partners get their share of the ad dollars. Of course, the platforms (search engines, marketing agencies, etc) then introduced software to detect fraud by tracking data such as IP addresses of the clickers, visit durations and conversions. Repeat IP addresses within a certain period of time, foreign IP addresses clicking on U.S. targeted ads, and affiliates whose clicks consistently result in low conversions (poor customer action) are ignored and the advertiser is not charged for such clicks.
Never Ending Fraud: The next problem with per click advertising, is that there will never be a way to completely halt it. It is its very own nature which makes it an overall less desireable option. As software is created to combat fraud, the fraudsters simply retaliate with anti-antifraud software. Hence, advertisers can never relax, and must consistently examine every click generated via per click dollars if they want to pay only for valid traffic. Seems like there would be a better solution, one that would reduce ad monitoring efforts and costs so advertisers could focus on customer service... and yes, there is such a solution.
When click fraud first started receiving bad press on a national, multi-level scale, Pulsar Marketing went to work to create a solution. One that would not only solve the problems associated with pay per click advertising, but also pay per lead CPA marketing as well. The reason; as many have learned these recent weeks, is that pay per lead fraud is now a target of fraudsters. Once again, instead of driving targeted demographics to websites, these fraudsters are getting others to fill out application forms for which the advertiser rewards them a 'per lead' fee. Although this requires much more effort on the part of fraudsters (since they must fill out a form instead of simply clicking through on a link), they are now developing software that will automatically submit data into forms, data that comes from sources such as telephone books. Although such leads appear legitimate (valid), they are nonetheless fraudulent as the names and addresses input into the forms were not that of the actual submitter. In addition to paying for invalid leads, the advertiser also risks upsetting consumers by thinking they had submitted their form to request contact, but they actually hadn't. And what if such customers were on the "Do Not Call" list?
Click Fraud Solutions: To ultimately stop click fraud, the first solution is to throw out per lead and pay per click advertising altogether, because it will forever be open to fraud, and with a much wider opening than other advertising options.
Alternatives: According to Pulsar Marketing, the top two alternatives are Per Sale and Flat Rate advertising, if you have the same powerful software which Pulsar Marketing offers.
Per sale advertising is much less risky than per lead and per click, yet it is also open to fraud by affiliate partners using stolen credit card or bank account information to generate sales commissions. Pay per sale; however, is not as attractive to affiliate partners, because they only earn commissions for actual sales generated. Hence affiliate partners will prefer to promote competitors who offer per click or per lead commissions instead of those that offer only per sale commissions. But there is a way to turn that around and to get affiliates to promote your per sale affiliate program instead of those that offer per click or per sale. How? By giving your affiliates Prestige. Affiliates also take pride in their websites, and by letting them host part of your purchase form, their website will have a more professional appearance than if it merely hosted a banner or textual link. Unfortunately, most advertising and application software does not allow remote hosting, nor provides tracking to identify which specific affiliates generated sales commissions. Pulsar Marketing has the software to enable remote purchase form processing plus affiliate tracking. The software uses your existing merchant gateway (bank account and credit card processor), your server and database, your privacy policy, terms/conditions, product/service data, your graphics and logos, and securely forwards the exclusive, sensitive customer data to you. This innovative technology is the exclusive property of Pulsar Marketing Inc.
Flat rate advertising offers risk free, no fraud advertising. Instead of paying per action (per click, per lead, per sale), you pay a flat rate regardless of how much traffic, leads or sales you receive. The problem with this option; however, is that many advertising agencies do not prove to you that your advertisement is indeed displayed. Most won't even tell you which websites; nor which pages of websites, your advertisement will be placed on. Even then, the bulk of them 'rotate' ads, meaning your ad may appear once out of every 2 or 3 visitors. Even worse, your advertisement might be placed onto websites; or website pages, which don't receive good traffic or which receive good traffic but those visitors are not interested in what you offer. For example, they may place a prime credit card ad onto a website that attracts people with bad credit or attracts people who are from a foreign country or otherwise are not interested in the card offer. Once again, Pulsar Marketing has a software solution. Our software ensures your advertisement is placed only on the websites which you desire, and that your ad is placed onto the main page of those websites. In addition, you can specify how much per day you will pay based upon the traffic ranking of those websites. This innovative technology is also the exclusive property of Pulsar Marketing Inc. Each day our software will scan your affiliate partner websites to ensure your advertisement is still active and correctly inserted onto the main pages. If not, it doesn't award your daily rate to non-complying website owners.
Pay Per Click Fraud at 20% or Higher: A recent report stated that up to 20% or more of click activity may be fraudulent. Advertisers may be losing $2 to fraudsters out of every $10 they spend on per click advertising. The biggest problem with pay per click advertising, is that the advertising platform (search engine, marketing agency, affiliate network, etc) places too much trust in its affiliate partners. Unfortunately, the scent of easy to obtain, ill-gotten money, is too overpowering for some people. Instead of helping the search engines get targeted demographics to visit search engines, websites, etc, it's so much easier to simply click on the ads themselves so the advertisers have to pay for the clicks and subsequently the affiliate partners get their share of the ad dollars. Of course, the platforms (search engines, marketing agencies, etc) then introduced software to detect fraud by tracking data such as IP addresses of the clickers, visit durations and conversions. Repeat IP addresses within a certain period of time, foreign IP addresses clicking on U.S. targeted ads, and affiliates whose clicks consistently result in low conversions (poor customer action) are ignored and the advertiser is not charged for such clicks.
Never Ending Fraud: The next problem with per click advertising, is that there will never be a way to completely halt it. It is its very own nature which makes it an overall less desireable option. As software is created to combat fraud, the fraudsters simply retaliate with anti-antifraud software. Hence, advertisers can never relax, and must consistently examine every click generated via per click dollars if they want to pay only for valid traffic. Seems like there would be a better solution, one that would reduce ad monitoring efforts and costs so advertisers could focus on customer service... and yes, there is such a solution.
When click fraud first started receiving bad press on a national, multi-level scale, Pulsar Marketing went to work to create a solution. One that would not only solve the problems associated with pay per click advertising, but also pay per lead CPA marketing as well. The reason; as many have learned these recent weeks, is that pay per lead fraud is now a target of fraudsters. Once again, instead of driving targeted demographics to websites, these fraudsters are getting others to fill out application forms for which the advertiser rewards them a 'per lead' fee. Although this requires much more effort on the part of fraudsters (since they must fill out a form instead of simply clicking through on a link), they are now developing software that will automatically submit data into forms, data that comes from sources such as telephone books. Although such leads appear legitimate (valid), they are nonetheless fraudulent as the names and addresses input into the forms were not that of the actual submitter. In addition to paying for invalid leads, the advertiser also risks upsetting consumers by thinking they had submitted their form to request contact, but they actually hadn't. And what if such customers were on the "Do Not Call" list?
Click Fraud Solutions: To ultimately stop click fraud, the first solution is to throw out per lead and pay per click advertising altogether, because it will forever be open to fraud, and with a much wider opening than other advertising options.
Alternatives: According to Pulsar Marketing, the top two alternatives are Per Sale and Flat Rate advertising, if you have the same powerful software which Pulsar Marketing offers.
Per sale advertising is much less risky than per lead and per click, yet it is also open to fraud by affiliate partners using stolen credit card or bank account information to generate sales commissions. Pay per sale; however, is not as attractive to affiliate partners, because they only earn commissions for actual sales generated. Hence affiliate partners will prefer to promote competitors who offer per click or per lead commissions instead of those that offer only per sale commissions. But there is a way to turn that around and to get affiliates to promote your per sale affiliate program instead of those that offer per click or per sale. How? By giving your affiliates Prestige. Affiliates also take pride in their websites, and by letting them host part of your purchase form, their website will have a more professional appearance than if it merely hosted a banner or textual link. Unfortunately, most advertising and application software does not allow remote hosting, nor provides tracking to identify which specific affiliates generated sales commissions. Pulsar Marketing has the software to enable remote purchase form processing plus affiliate tracking. The software uses your existing merchant gateway (bank account and credit card processor), your server and database, your privacy policy, terms/conditions, product/service data, your graphics and logos, and securely forwards the exclusive, sensitive customer data to you. This innovative technology is the exclusive property of Pulsar Marketing Inc.
Flat rate advertising offers risk free, no fraud advertising. Instead of paying per action (per click, per lead, per sale), you pay a flat rate regardless of how much traffic, leads or sales you receive. The problem with this option; however, is that many advertising agencies do not prove to you that your advertisement is indeed displayed. Most won't even tell you which websites; nor which pages of websites, your advertisement will be placed on. Even then, the bulk of them 'rotate' ads, meaning your ad may appear once out of every 2 or 3 visitors. Even worse, your advertisement might be placed onto websites; or website pages, which don't receive good traffic or which receive good traffic but those visitors are not interested in what you offer. For example, they may place a prime credit card ad onto a website that attracts people with bad credit or attracts people who are from a foreign country or otherwise are not interested in the card offer. Once again, Pulsar Marketing has a software solution. Our software ensures your advertisement is placed only on the websites which you desire, and that your ad is placed onto the main page of those websites. In addition, you can specify how much per day you will pay based upon the traffic ranking of those websites. This innovative technology is also the exclusive property of Pulsar Marketing Inc. Each day our software will scan your affiliate partner websites to ensure your advertisement is still active and correctly inserted onto the main pages. If not, it doesn't award your daily rate to non-complying website owners.