Don’t Consider Click Fraud When Choosing Your PPC Venue
Panama, launched on February 5, is based on technology that, like Google’s, allows advertisers to pay for search terms based on their popularity. It is key to Yahoo’s strategy to compete with faster-growing rival Google.
Yahoo’s Panama, the answer to Google’s AdWords, is gaining in popularity. A new announcement that Yahoo plans to address click fraud and correct its higher than Google click fraud rate has some industry insiders looking hopeful.
Yahoo has promoted one of its staff attorneys to an executive-level position that is akin to being click fraud czar at the second largest Web search provider.
The move is rightly seen as a gambit to make the second place search engine more competitive against the front runner in the pay-per-click market as well. If Yahoo is successful in curbing its click fraud problem then it could take some business away from Google, but how much is uncertain. There will always be a valid reason to choose Google over Yahoo and there are valid reasons for choosing Yahoo over Google now. The primary one being your target market.
It’s a well-known industry fact that Google receives the lion’s share of searches each month, but it’s equally true that Yahoo receives the lion’s share of search traffic. The second place search engine, after all, receives the highest number of searchers, which means there is more potential ad clickers on that search engine. And the demographics are different. Techies are more likely to use Google. Newbies are more likely to use Yahoo. If you have a product or service geared toward non-techie individuals who might frequent Yahoo then you’d be better off advertising on Yahoo, regardless of the click fraud rate.
Still, Yahoo is to be applauded for its approach and I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics, said the fact that Yahoo was creating a vice president position devoted to advertising system quality signals that the company is taking the issue of click fraud seriously.
“We believe Yahoo is taking a more honest approach than the others in talking about the scale of the problem,” he said.
In the recent past, Google came under fire for being evasive about its click fraud numbers, claiming less than 10%. Some people believe it’s higher. The fact that Google had a chance to prosecute a frauder and passed it up due to privacy concerns has some advertisers hoping for a better solution. Nevertheless, advertising on a search engine just because they have a lower click fraud rate might not be the wisest choice. It won’t matter where you advertise if you aren’t reaching your target market. And that’s my point.
If you plan to do some pay-per-click advertising, run a test ad at each search engine – run the exact same ad and make all of your preferences exactly the same. Nothing should be different. Then, you can see which ad draws more clicks and which search engine is right for you. Click fraud be damned!
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