If you feel that AdWords are the saving grace of Google, ask yourself: am I going broke on Google AdWords?  If you are getting lots of clicks, and less than 5% of them become sales, you need to take this question very seriously.  Many of the visitors to your site could be people paid to run up your AdWords bill, or even competitors clicking your ads to use up your quota. 

Now, think about this.  Google settled a lawsuit regarding click fraud.  Perhaps the $90 million penalty was considered a cost of doing business for this golliath media conglomerate.   Perhaps they're just fine with click fraud, knowing they mostly won't be caught, and will certainly have the money to pay off a lawsuit, should you bring one. 

Recently, writer Kim Roach posed an interesting question:  whether Google is essentially making money from click fraud, as webmasters and business owners become frustrated with rampant bogus click-thrus from Google AdWords and other popular search engine ads.

Anyone can click on your AdWords link, and you get charged for it.  That includes clicks from the people who are paid to run up your AdWords bill, to competitors using up your advertising quota by clicking your link over and over.

It might seem a small price to pay for fame and fortune, but consider this: the Internet Advertising Bureau estimates that 20-35% of click-thrus are fraudulent in one way or another.  That means for every $1000 you spend, $200 to $350 is probably wasted on fraud.  With typical small business expenditures on Google AdWords in the $5,000 - $10,000 per month range, the waste could be as high as $3,500 a month.  Google recently settled a class action lawsuit for $90 million in response to click fraud.

Roach writes,  "They have certainly paid lip service, indicating that they have systems in place to deter it, but the click fraud numbers continue to rise."  (The full article by Kim Roach can be found at SiteProNews, a company connected with ExactSeek.com, which offers an alternative web ad model.)

 

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