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Much has been thought about the PPC (pay per click) Industry regarding Clicks that are very puzzling to the clients. Very little has been written mainly because proof is hard to come by in many cases. However; anyone that has a good head on his (or her) shoulder knows there are some Clicks that can be viewed as being of a fraudulent nature or at the least certainly unwarranted. I'm sure the PPC engines prefer I not use that word (Fraudulent) so I will refer to them as Bad Clicks in the future. Now the PPC Industry would never admit to it but they know these types of Clicks exist and are part of the process. The percentage of bad Clicks certainly varies but I think it sometimes approaches the 10 to 15% area. Now thats a huge burden on a clients budget.

Where do these bad Clicks come from? Lets look at some of the possibilitys. One would be Mad Hat clickers who see how far they could go on a PPC search without being detected. Our competition would be another main concern. They could be clicking on for many reasons. It could be just to see the quality of a site or they could be jealous of the higher ranking site or maybe they have nothing better to do (hard to believe). The PPC Engine also has plenty of blame aimed towards them and possibly justified in some cases. The PPC Engines could be guilty in some cases (possibly not to their knowledge) with less than accurate reporting hardware. Now; very few want to claim that people in the PPC Industry are attempting to fraudulently Click on any of their clients. One hopes that nothing lke this ever goes on.

The PPC Industry claims that there can be no Fraudulent (Whoops-Bad) Clicks such as the Mad Hatter who wants to see how many Clicks he can get away with. They claim to have a Click Protection System That runs 24/7, sophisticated software, regular updates and even reviews by Independent Experts. Wow -that is impressive ( if indeed true ).They also say they can control these Bad Click attempts and catch the perpetrators (possibly after the initial click). Could be true but there again we must take their word for that. However; lets not forget that it does not take multiple Clicks to run your account down. Single (or initial ) Clicks can be just as painful if they are on a regular basis.

I believe if the PPC Industry wants to keep a solid relationship with their clients, they should build a bad click credit system into their reports so that those unwarranted Clicks are being credited back to the accounts. Yes, some will say they already have this type of protection but just try and find your credited back Clicks.

How many times have you checked the figures (Hits) on the PPC keyword activity sheets only to see a vast difference from your own Web site records? After your initial concerns are sent to the PPC companies, you will usually be returned with something like this - " We have researched your account and have found that all of your clicks were qualified clicks". Now ; I would like to know how they determined among all those clicks that none were bad clicks. Must be a greater wisdom working there.

In closing, one must understand that the PPC Industry is a highly lucrative business. Why else would all the major engines be involved. I also believe a high percentage of PPC Firms do a good job. However; one must realize this is a business that could be taken advantage of. The client has to rely on Reports that he or she has little or no proof of Realization. For many clients, the Clicks in an average day do not add up to the response (nor should they since there is no way of knowing a response percentage.)

So where does all this leave us? At the mercy of the Search Engines, I guess. Alas - but life goes on in the PPC Industry and as the saying goes.

"And The Click Goes On"