Is Confidence in Paid Search Slipping?

Click fraud, a term that describes when a paid search ad is clicked on by someone other than an interested consumer (e.g., a third-party who profits from the click because they get a percentage of the ad revenue), is the 1000 lb gorilla in the jungle that is paid search. How's that for a metaphor? Click Fraud awareness is growing as traditional media sources such as Business Week, which just published a cover story on the topic titled, "

• Use a click fraud detection tool that provides documentation for fraudulent clicks - submit any disputes to the search engines as soon as you discover them.
• Pay close attention to your conversion metrics. It may be difficult or impossible to detect or prevent click fraud entirely, but if you watch your conversion metrics and stay within your CPA and/or revenue goals, then at least you won't lose your shirt from fraudulent clicks.
Paid search is still an extremely effective and targeted form of online advertising, but click fraud is not acceptable. Unfortunately, we may need to live with it for a while longer until Yahoo, Google and other search engines step up and make a serious commitment to preventing it. If they don't, then CPA models that charge advertisers only when a coversion has been made may nudge search out of the online marketing spotlight. Comments Tag: Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl Bookmark murdok: Michael Pedone is the President / CEO of eTrafficJams.com, a search engine optimization and website marketing company http://www.etrafficjams.com> located in Clearwater, Florida that specializes in getting targeted, eager-to-buy traffic to your site. You can catch him blogging at: http://www.etrafficjams.com/blog/>.