It is estimated that 10-20% of clicks from paid search ads on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are fraudulent.  Click fraud is generally defined as a click from a paid ad by someone who has no intention of viewing your web site, and has only clicked to have you charged for the click or to exhaust your PPC budget for the day so that your ads no longer appear (while theirs continue). 

This is typically a competitor, or someone the competitor may have hired to do.  In some very competitive online industries, there have been cases where PPC (pay-per-click) click fraud has been as high as 50%!

Although the search engines claim to have rudimentary click fraud identification and prevention in place to refund these cases, ultimately the responsibility remains with the web site owner. 

ActiveMeter can help you determine if there is potential click fraud from your PPC  advertising efforts.  By knowing the traffic originated from a PPC click and logging its behavior thru your site, you can gather the data you need to substantiate a PPC click fraud claim. ActiveMeter can instantly capture the data, including clickstream and IP address can be used to justify a click fraud claim to Google and other search engines.

In addition, with ActiveMeter you may even be able to identify who it is and take appropriate action.  Of course, not all repeated clicks are from click fraud, and can be legitimate prospects that have not bookmarked your web site, and are using your PPC ads to click to your web site. In any case, you may be able to see who it is and tell to stop or to bookmark your web site.

ActiveMeter's unique web visitor identification, and web analytics can prevent click fraud from making your web site a victim.  If you haven't signed up to ActiveMeter already, click here to signup for click fraud detection and get ActiveMeter to start protecting your web site now.