You may already be familiar with the idea of click fraud, but if you are not, you can catch up here.

As a marketer, above knowing what click fraud is, you must also be able to monitor, prevent and eliminate click fraud.

Some pay-per-click marketers think click fraud is not as rampant as it used to be, but unfortunately, click fraud is still rampant and keeps growing year in and year out. 

What Is Click Fraud 

Click fraud is a type of ad fraud, and the goal of click fraud is to create interaction with ads online without having an interest in conversions. For instance, click fraud can be done by competitors who intend to drain the ad budget of their opponents or greedy publishers who want to earn more. 

Though very rare, some invalid clicks are without malicious intent; these clicks are from good bots. For instance, web scrapers can look for significant ad spend costs from incessant clicks for advertisers despite no particular targeting or malicious intent. 

To further understand this, let’s give the practical example of a PPC marketer looking for a landing page with a specific keyword; for this to be done, Google loads a search, locates the ads, clicks on them, and pops it up. This click costs the advertiser their budget, but it is a click without malicious intent though technically it is still an invalid click and can be classified as click fraud,

Why is Click Fraud Monitoring Important?

The impact of click fraud can be a lot, but the most damaging effect of click fraud is financial damage. The budget for ads is wasted on invalid clicks, and there is a low conversion rate; this decides on data complicated to make in media marketing ads because fake users begin to infiltrate your media funnel, and you are left wondering and questioning every piece of data you see if they are legitimate or not? Is your ad going to actual people or not? The impact of click fraud can be a lot, penetrating from finance to operation to marketing; thus, routinely monitoring your ads for click fraud will greatly save your business.

How To Monitor Click Fraud 

Now that we understand that click fraud can penetrate and impact significantly any advertisement out there, it is pertinent to discuss how to monitor the extent to which your ad is affected by clicks and how to prevent it from causing more damage.

Below are ways to effectively monitor and prevent click fraud. This might not cover all monitoring methods, but it will help you understand if your ad is explicitly targeted.

1. Check Your Conversion Rates Regularly. 

When your ad is targeted by click fraud, there is always unusual user behaviour. You can check the following on any ad you want to review specifically to ascertain this.

• Compare and contrast the conversation rate of the specific ads with other ads on your website. If the rates are higher than the others and the conversion turnover is lower, it can mean you have a fraudulent conversion taking place.
• Compare and contrast the conversion rate against the average returns in your industry.
• Take note of the historical trends in conversion rates. Is the spike peculiar to a specific time? Usually, an ad hit by click fraud fluctuates seriously. The rates can go from 4% to 35% and then back to 4% within a few days.

2. Check Your Bounce Rate 

Ads with a very high level of click fraud will naturally have a high-level bounce rate. This is because most of the click fraud is bot by bots and cannot mimic human behaviour, so when they click on your ad, it bounces back. Here is what to do:

• Log into any analytic platform you are using 
• Find the landing page for the ad in question
• Put in a segment the traffic from your organic and  PPC users, then compare the bounce rate. Usually, organic traffic will be smaller, but there is high variation and something wrong.  

3. Check Your Click Through Rate(CTR)

Malicious clicks automatically mean a high click-through rate. Although this doesn’t always happen, if an ad typically has a low CTR, it can be upgraded to a ‘normal’ CTR when malicious click fraud activity occurs. Check your CTR by:

• Monitor the CTR of your ads. Notice when it is spiking. 
• Compare and contrast CTR on your ad to similar ads. Notice if there is a significant difference. 
• Check your CTR against the average of your industry. 
•  

4. Check For Submissions, Comments And User Accounts

If your website is such that you are collecting data from forms or comments submitted, you can check the timestamp against your paid search activities. If you see a high increase in dormant conditions and user account which coincide with the PPC activity, you may have just spotted a click fraud activity. 

5. Fetch For IPAs From Server Log

If you have been able to detect fraudulent click fraud activities on your ad, do something about it, and one of the things you can do about it is to go into your server log. Download your server log, and search for any suspicious activity. When you have successfully identified the suspicious IPAs, put them on the exclusion list.  

6. Use Automated Click Fraud Protection  

All of the above might sound like too much talk, and even if you have an analysis team that does all of these, they may still need help to carry out these tasks effectively. If you are very committed to eliminating click fraud, looking into automated protection solutions is essential. Since it is a computerized process, the click fraud detection process is seamless and allows the smooth removal of fraudulent traffic at every level of your PPC funnel. This automated protection makes your website safe from every form of click fraud and its potential damage.  

Finally…

The best way to monitor and stop click fraud altogether is by using Click Fraud Protection tools such as ClickPatrol. With ClickPatrol, you automate the monitoring of your campaigns. Each click on your ad is thoroughly screened for characteristics of fraud, and fraudulent clicks can be blocked.

You can turn on monitoring-only mode to monitor your campaigns and not make changes to Google ads.

Bots and invalid users on the internet frequently interact with the websites organizations use to run their businesses. This massive process is known as the fake web. It drains ad budget, messes up important metrics, invades the database, and makes it increasingly challenging to run a business online. It can sometimes be difficult to handle the issues that stem from the fake web because various threats affect different types of content. 

Some of these issues include but are not limited to click farms, botnets, click spamming, account hijackers, and other forms of invalid traffic. 

We will focus on click spamming, how it works, how it affects your businesses, and how to address it. 

Click spamming malware has become a thriving problem recently, with several campaigns uncovered. Click spam is a click fraud that targets mobile apps primarily and can be exceptionally costly for advertisers. The dangerous part is that it can go on for a long time undetected by the advertising platform. 

What is Click Spamming 

Click spam is a type of click fraud. Click spam is also known as click flooding. Mobile websites or apps use malware to swamp ads or download links with automatically generated clicks. These clicks usually hijack real users’ behaviour while, in the background, an app is running. Types of click spamming include:

Click Flooding: This is when the malware app supplies multiple clicks for a single ad click.

Fake Views or Impression: The malware generates fake views on an ad without the consent of the advertisers.

Organic Poaching: The same malware takes credit for organic app download or installation.

How Does Click Spamming Work?

Click spamming is pretty straightforward. The user, apps such as a game app, utility app, beauty app, or any other exciting app, download an app. Apps themselves have in-built features that conduct activities in the background for the user. These feature includes converting views on ad to clicks, clicking on ads, etc., and connecting spam work by installing spoofing or fake downloads on an app. 

How does this happen?

• Users download infected apps unknowingly on their device
• This infected app has an in-built code that creates multiple clicks on ads or permits an external device to click in the app
•  All the clicks are assigned to a particular click spammer, and if there are in-app purchase, download, or ad clicks, the spammer gets the payout
• Beyond defrauding ad marketers of the money spent on ads, click spam also makes click data irregular, making platforms look more effective than they usually are.

The direct implication is that when a user downloads an app that runs in the background, it could translate to depleted device battery life and slower device performance. Still, for advertisers, you would see a lot of activity on your ads but with no corresponding ad conversion. Sometimes when modifications are made, they may need to be allocated correctly, and there is a high chance that spoofed clicks will increase before any conversion.

The Relationship between Click Spamming and SEO

Malicious users/malware can also hijack organic links. Organic links include anything a user clicks on outside paid promotions or ads. For instance, a link shared on someone’s social media platform, a link to an article, or a link search engine result page of a non-paid section. 

Where click spamming targets organic results, it also presents a false reality to the business owner. Organic traffic increases without visible conversions. 

When a business invests heavily in SEO to drive organic traffic, seeing an influx in organic traffic will trigger some hope, leading the business owner to believe that their efforts are finally paying off when it could, in fact, be malware spamming the website.

Click spamming happens in a paid ad when a malicious user imitates a genuine user or has access to simple clicks by malware installation on their device. This also applies to SEO marketing efforts and can significantly affect your marketing.

How Do You Stop Click Spamming?

Click spamming is a form of ad fraud that can be stopped using anti-fraud software. It is also possible to stop clicking spam manually, but that will be highly hinged on guesswork, extended time, and analysis. An anti-click fraud software that is time and cost-effective such as ClickPatrol, can help you accurately spot fake clicks. With this software, you can block multiple clicks from a similar source within a stipulated time- which is how clicking spamming usually works.  

Digital marketing mistakes have happened to the best marketers.

Many have hard to learn the hard way, but not everyone has to go through that route.

The internet and, by extension, digital marketing have become a significant part of our everyday lives and businesses.

The digital world is significantly different from the offline reality since it is constantly growing and evolving throughout time. 

Digital marketing helps promote your company, brand, and goods or services. There is always an audience online for everything you offer, and your presence can help you establish a reputation. 

However, several businesses don’t enjoy the benefits of the marketing process, which significantly affects their return on investment. 

In this article, we’ll analyze the five biggest marketing mistakes you need to steer clear of in 2022. 

The Top Five Digital Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

 

1. Unidentified Target Audience

A business target audience is the precise set of individuals most inclined to demand the product or services your company, business, or brand offers. These are the people you should focus your advertising efforts on. This target audience is determined by several characteristics, including age, gender, income, locality, hobbies, interests, and much more.

What happens when you can’t even define who your target audience is? In this case, the general public gets to see your products, most of whom don’t care much about what your brand offers. 

The target audience is crucial to increase your chances of conversion and boost revenue. It would be challenging for you to create suitable marketing tactics that suit your market without a defined target audience.

Figuring out who your target audience helps you invest time into building better customer-business relationships, which is a great way to promote your brand. You’ll reach your objectives more quickly if you decide to whom you want to market your goods and services. However, the opposite happens when you don’t have a clearly defined target audience. 

2. Zero Social Media Presence

There is no ignoring that social media has significantly influenced people and brands. 

How do you expect to connect with your audience without a social media presence in this digital age? 

You would be missing the entire essence of digital marketing if you believed that marketing would be effective on its own without social media. But for whatever reason, some companies choose not to take any action in this area.

Social media is necessary for e-commerce, which would not be achievable otherwise. In 2018, Research claimed that 97 percent of Fortune 500 firms utilize at minimum one social media network to advertise their activities and enhance effective stakeholder communication. 

Social media platforms are an efficient method to connect with your business audience and promote your brand, no matter what category your target audience falls under. This way, you’re taking the first step toward turning leads into dedicated clients by advertising your business to the online community.

3. Neglecting Pain Points of the Target Audience

The customer’s pain point is a particular issue that potential clients of your company are facing. In simple terms, they are the problems that your target audience is dealing with. These pain points of the target audience are diverse and unique to each person. Pain points of your target audience are why you are in business!

Ignoring this simple fact is one of the most prominent digital marketing mistakes that would cost you a lot. Your target audience seeks you out because they expect you to guide them toward the ideal problem-solving options.

Attempt to have meaningful discussions with them instead of pressuring them to make a purchase. 

Inquire about their desires, Communicate and express that you are aware of their difficulties before you pitch your problem-solving product to them. 

Ensure that they comprehend how choosing your brand will improve their life. Your pitch should have them recognize and understand your products and the value they’d enjoy from using them.

4. No Understanding of Search Engine Optimization

For every digital business out there, SEO is a necessity. Many businesses ignore the crucial impact of SEO in attracting potential customers. A misperception or lack of awareness of the importance of Search Engine Optimization is one digital mistake to avoid in 2022, as its importance to your business is unquantifiable. 

The digital world is fierce and highly competitive; however, having an SEO-friendly website gives you a distinct edge. SEO knowledge boosts your website’s visibility to potential customers, draws organic traffic, and increases your chances of making sales and converting visitors into clients. 

5. Faulty Campaign Strategy

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with digital marketing is not having a distinct campaign strategy. Many businesses don’t know what factors are considered while developing a plan. Therefore, the effort, time, funds, and everything invested in the campaign go all up in flames.

It is important to fully understand the employed tactic’s strengths and weaknesses before taking any action. These plans may occasionally be flawless yet still fail due to unforeseen events. 

Recovery plans are also essential to react quickly to unexpected circumstances.

You must understand your target market and buyers’ persona to avoid making these errors. 

You also need to set SMART goals, use the appropriate tools and social media platforms, and consistently monitor the progress of your campaign.

Conclusion

These digital marketing mistakes are detrimental to your brand and business. You must make conscious efforts to avoid them to ensure your business succeeds. 

Digital marketing tools are essential because for any business to succeed, it must find ways to reach its prospecting clients. Thus marketing in its various forms are indispensable to a business and its bottom line. In the age of the internet and its digital transformations, digital marketing has earned its place.

Digital marketing is progressively taking the lead as the most effective marketing channel. All that you, your brand, or your business does to promote your goods and services to clients and prospects online is known as digital marketing. However, some marketing tools are essentially required to become a successful marketer in this niche. We’ll be going over them in this article. 

Businesses must therefore devote time and resources to developing effective digital marketing plans. As of 2022, nearly every company still in operation has an online presence. This system is necessary because it involves reaching out to potential customers and trying to get noticed by potential clients worldwide.

Ahrefs for Effective SEO 

A good understanding of what your audience could be searching for is invaluable to marketing. SEO softwares solve the problem of knowing exactly what your customers need by the things they search for.

Ahrefs is a great tool for generating keyword suggestions and evaluating your chances of ranking for them. It helps you view the leading organic keywords for any website and get an idea of how much traffic that website receives for any particular search term by using the site explorer function.

Additionally, you get insights on a website’s best-performing articles and backlinking resources. Ahrefs is a very good all-around tool to assist you in ensuring an effective content strategy and understanding the major shortcomings of your competition to assist you in leveraging on that aspect. 

Clearbit  For Accurate Target Demographics

Nothing screams wasted effort like marketing to the wrong target. Websites such as Clearbit help build a current profile of your target demographic. This  makes converting leads easier by using data from over 100 sources, including Salesforce and many other advertising platforms. The firm, function, and the company’s size are among the details they have gathered on their leads

Canva for Flawless Design

Design and aesthetics are a core part of digital marketing. Therefore it is important that these are factored carefully into your marketing plan. In 2022, it has become incredibly easy to make stunning designs without any design knowledge

Canva, a digital design and publishing tool, was introduced in 2013 to enable anybody worldwide to design anything and post anywhere.

It uses a drag-and-drop format and contains a database with thousands of images, fonts, graphics, and other components. Marketers may use the software for layout and graphics in print and digital media. Both professionals and students may utilize it because of its excellent user interface (UI).

Google Data Studio For Analytics

Data Studio is a free online tool that transforms your raw information into insightful, easy-to-read infographics and data reviews that you can share with others.

Google’s data studio gives your data visual life. You can choose from several charts, including bars, pie charts, and lines. You can utilize area and bubble graphs, pivot tables, geo maps, paginated data tables, and more.

You can streamline your reporting process using Google Data Studio’s integrated data reports. Additionally, you may quickly and effortlessly share your observations with the rest of your team or anybody else. Furthermore, it offers simple data visualization using editable tables and charts.

Word-Counter For Character Counting 

The digital age is synonymous to bite size information. Ensuring you can pass your message across in a clear and concise manner is best.

A decent character counter is among the most effective tools needed by a digital marketer. Many of the finest marketers build their own since it is so crucial in internet marketing.

We all recognize how essential it is to have the ability to count characters, but anybody who has ever attempted to use a character counter online—or worse—a calculator to handle this issue can attest to how difficult the entire process can be.

For marketers, consistency and accuracy are important concepts. With Word-Counter.io, you may quickly and accurately determine the number of characters in any text.

MailChimp for Email Marketing 

Emails have remained one of the most effective forms of digital marketing till date. Email marketing tools are marketers best friend.

MailChimp was designed as an email advertising and digital marketing tool to automate and carry out campaigns. The website visitors that your marketing efforts are targeted are visible. Furthermore, MailChimp provides the customer with various essential SaaS (Software as a Service) options.

Campaigns for email marketing may be extremely successful with this tool. It’s ultimately a fantastic option for engaging with your intended audience.

Google Analytics For Monitoring

Without trial and error, it’s impossible to advance in the marketing industry. The top businesses track and evaluate their strategy and determine the effectiveness of the content. This testing step is important since analytics help you improve the content and marketing approach. Furthermore, it helps analyze how effective your content is.

You need to thoroughly monitor the results your marketing strategy is producing for you using Google Analytics. Google Analytics will give you data on visitors to your website, including their gender, where they are located, the browser or gadget they may use, and the web pages they visit the most.

The toolbox of a digital marketer should contain both free and premium tools. Any combination of the mentioned tools may form the basis of a strong digital marketing strategy. Although you may utilize various tools for your digital marketing campaigns, every marketer looking to become successful should have these 7 in their repertoire.