A common question online is, “Is it worth using ClickCease?” or any anti-click fraud software?
By looking at online discussions, forums and review sites, it can be tricky getting a clear picture of whether or not software like ClickCease is right for your needs.
Is there really that much click fraud out there?
Don’t Google, or the other PPC ad platforms, do plenty to block those invalid clicks already?
Is it worth spending that money when I could apply some simple blocking techniques myself?
Now, obviously we’re going to say, “Yes, it is always worth blocking click fraud on your PPC ads.” But, a better way to understand if ClickCease is right for you is to look at the stats.
Click fraud traffic statistics in 2020
The global spend on pay per click marketing is around $144 billion per year. (source)
In 2020, the cost of click fraud was expected to cost the industry around $24 billion. (source)
The average PPC ad campaign sees an average of around 14% in invalid clicks. (ClickCease data)
During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in April-May 2020, the volume of click fraud climbed by 21%. (ClickCease data) (Google data)
With the average SME business in the USA spending $9,000-10,000 per month, that offers a potential loss of between $100,000 to $120,000 per year.
The business most affected by click fraud in 2020 include:
- Photography 65%
- Pest control 62%
- Locksmiths 53%
- Plumbers 46%
(ClickCease data)
It might also depend on your geographical location, with certain countries seeing a higher average rate of PPC fraud than others.
Who is clicking on your ads?
Competitors
The most common source of invalid clicks on small business PPC ads is often competitors.
On demand local services such as locksmiths often pay a high cost per click (CPC). But the trade off is in the fact that anyone searching for a service such as an emergency plumber or locksmith tends to need the service immediately, so the click through rate (CTR) and conversion should be high.
However, with each click on paid search engine results costing anything from a few cents to $50 (or more), it doesn’t take much to deplete a daily ad spend for a rival business.
As well as small businesses, marketing agencies can also be incredibly competitive. And, with so many campaigns being managed on behalf of clients, ensuring the PPC ad spend goes where it should is imperative.
There is a growing portfolio of proven click fraud cases which highlight how common this problem is. (source) (independent reviews site) (famous example)
In short, if you’re spending more than a few bucks per click, and 14% of your ad spend could add up to a sizeable chunk, then it might be worth using anti-click fraud software such as ClickCease.
Organised ad fraud
Click fraud is usually undertaken by individuals looking to damage their rival’s ad spend. However, ad fraud is a related but different practice.
Ad fraud is usually undertaken by bots (automated software) operating on behalf of organised fraud networks. (Methbot) (ad fraud botnets)
This tends to affect advertisers running display or video ads and can happen across multiple platforms.
Genuine accidental clicks
We’re all guilty of clicking on a link accidentally and clicking back immediately. Or, perhaps searching for a company and clicking on their paid ad to get to their site.
A few of these are innocent enough, and are part of the collateral of online advertising. In fact, this type of obvious accidental invalid click is the type of click that Google and the ad networks tend to nip in the bud quickly.
That’s not to say that every accidental click is blocked by the networks, or that every accidental click is a genuine mistake.
But then, do you believe that Google or Bing do enough to block invalid clicks on your paid ads? This might be one way to answer whether or not you should use ClickCease..
Is it worth using ClickCease?
There are a few questions you can ask to work out whether it’s worth using ClickCease or anti-click fraud software in general.
Whatever you’re spending on PPC ads per month, would you prefer to use all of it for advertising, without losing 14%?
Do you pay a high amount per click, and often see a poor return or high bounce rate? Or, do you see strange traffic on your PPC ads at strange times?
Do you manage ad campaigns on behalf of multiple clients with an array of competitive keywords? Would they want to know that you are doing everything possible to prevent losing money on their paid ads?
And finally, would you be open to running a free diagnostic of your pay per click ads to see how much is going on non-genuine traffic?
For the price of a cup of coffee each day, you could be ensuring that ALL of your PPC marketing is seen by only genuine searchers. No competitors, no bots, no fraudsters. Is that worth using?
