Since business owners began using pay per click advertising, there is a growing concern over Google Fraud.  Many questions have arisen, such as, "How do I know these clicks are from actual potential customers," and "How can you tell if my competitors are clicking on my ads?"

First, let me tell you the burden not only lies on Google, but the business owners as well.  You may say, "No way, it's their responsiblity, not mine!"

Let me ask you this.  If you have a brand new car which has high monthly payments, isn't it your responsibility to check the oil?  Or at least pay someone to check it and change it for you?  Of course it is.  General Motors doesn't come knocking on your door saying, "It's been 3,000 miles (or 7,000 miles if you are using all Synthetic oil), we are here to change your oil."  But wouldn't THAT be nice!

The point here is that you either hired a reputable Google AdWords Pay Per Click Firm to research your target market and give you a killer advertising campaign, or you gave it a whirl and did it yourself.  You are then paying Google a daily and monthly fee for your pay per click advertising.

So then why wouldn't you nurture this expensive campaign and make sure it is optimized and you are getting valid click traffic, and the best conversions for the price you pay for each keyword?  You should, and this is also part of your responsibility.

How do you do your part to make sure there is no Google Fraud happening in your AdWords campaign?

It is quite simple, actually.

First and foremost, login to your Google AdWords account and click on the light green tab at the top that says Analytics.  It will turn dark green, so you know you are on the proper menu.  On the bottom left-hand side of the page, click on the link that says Ad Website Profile. 

Then make sure Add a Profile for a New Domain is checked in the circle, then type in your URL, also known as your domain name or web site address.  Go ahead and type in your web site's address, such as http://www.AdWordsandSEOServices.com/.  Then click Continue.

You will then see a script in a text box.  Go ahead and copy that code, then install the Google Analytics code on every single web page you have, or have someone else install it for you. 

Here is what the code looks like:

<script src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
_uacct = "UA-490000-1";
urchinTracker();
</script>

Once it is installed on every single page of your web site (yes, this is necessary), you will then be able to check all of the statistics of your visitors and see what keywords they type into the search engines that led them to click on your site.  How simple is that?!  You can login everyday, or have the reports e-mailed to you.

What kind of information does Analytics give me?

- With Google Analytics, you can view very valuable data, such as the user's city and state, or even locations in different countries. 

- Find out how much organic (free) traffic you are receiving, and  which Internet Service Providers these potential customer are using. 

- Find out the percentage of loyal visitors versus the percentage of brand new, unique visitors every day.

- How long did they stay on your site? 

- What pages did they visit? 

- Did they purchase your products or opt-in to your free report or newsletter? 

- Add the conversion tracking code to your shopping cart pages.  It's not really very difficult, and hiring a programmer to do this is inexpensive.

Step number two is to analyze daily traffic, and make sure you are not getting a ton of traffic from one area, unless you have a local region targeted.

Make sure you also analyze your web logs, or have your programmer e-mail you daily or weekly reports of your web logs.

Keep in mind there are several reasons why it might appear you are getting fraudulent clicks, but they might actually be valid.

Here are some reasons for an increase or change in clicks that might appear as if they are related to fraud but are not.

1) Seasonal market; i.e., Christmas products (increased traffic during the last few months of the year)

2) Competition drops pay per click advertising; i.e., they are no longer showing on the Google AdWords pay per click pages along with yours. This means you will receive more traffic.

3) You have increased your cost per click and/or daily budget, which means you will receive more clicks.

4) Identical IP addresses (analyzing your web logs) AOL, Earthlink and Comcast assign identical IP addresses to different users.

5) Users doing comparison shopping when certain types of products become available or during certain holidays

6) You need to optimize your landing pages and search engine keyword optimization (if you are getting a lot of clicks with no sales)

7) If you are advertising on the Google Content Network, there might be a huge increase in traffic when your ad shows up on a news page or web site promoting a new product; i.e., the iPhone.

After implementing all of the above items and ruling out the items from the list above, if you are receiving 2 or 3 times the number of clicks on any day or week compared to regular days or weeks, then you can request Google begin an investigation for you.

To begin an invalid click investigation, you must submit the following information to Google.

- Campaign name,

- AdGroup name(s)

- Keywords in question

- Date and time of invalid click activity

- The trend which led you to believe there were invalid clicks,

- IP addresses (repeated) in your web logs. 

A real Google representative employee will investigate your claim and send you a response in 3 - 5 business days and let you know if these clicks are invalid and fraudulent.  If the results show they are invalid, they will credit your account.

Keep in mind that Google uses proprietary technology to delete any charges of invalid clicks before they hit your account. 

If you are comparing your web logs to your Google Analytics report and it shows more clicks from Google than in your logs, this means Google has already deleted the invalid clicks they found in your account.

Enjoy the riches that a highly targeted and effective Google AdWords campaign can bring your way, because pay per click services is an extremely valuable advertising tool.

View a comparative analysis of an ineffective Google AdWords pay per click campaign regarding foreclosures, versus the significant savings of having a highly optimized ppc campaign.  If you think hiring an AdWords Professional is expensive, think again.  You could lose thousands every month, or within a couple of months, by spending too  much per click and not get one single call or opt-in.  Highly optimizing your ppc campaigns is critical to your long-term success and daily budget.

However, make sure to analyze your data at least once every two weeks, if not every week, or even on a daily basis (which is how often I check mine and my clients statistics), to make sure your ppc services are giving you the most for your money.