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September 23, 2006

I received a very interesting telephone call early yesterday afternoon from a business owner of a lead generation website who had seen his PPC (Pay Per Click) ad spend on Google escalate in the last month or so from $4,000/month to $6,000/month with no detectible, corresponding 50% increase in business.

From beginning to end of the conversation his entire focus was on his concern that he was the victim of invalid clicks (a.k.a. click fraud).

Not coincidentally yesterday, Marketing Pilgrim's Andy Beal pointed out a lengthy Business Week cover story which was breaking yesterday about the very same topic.

Update: today's New York Times publishes its own article on the subject.

It's plausible that the business owner's (I spoke with) issue is not invalid clicks at all (or if so, perhaps less than suspected) but a less-than-analytics approach to his online marketing coupled with a surge of interest in his hot field. First clue: he had long ago opted *out* of the Google Content network. Further, he had Google's AdWords conversion tracker in place, but *not* Google Analytics.

Perhaps other real issues include a recent spike in competitive activity (driving his bid prices up) compounded by untested PPC ads, poorly performing landing pages, etc--all which could be analyzed in Google Analytics and then corrective action taken.

Further, he could also use Google Analytics to check on the click activity of potentially over-zealous competitors using the "Domains" or "Network Location" Visitor Segment Performance reports, had he suspected that problem.

The well spoken business owner wanted to know his options.

Here's what I told him:

Option 1. Investigate, and consider implementing an invalid clicks detection software/service.

Option 2. Hire ROI Revolution to configure/implement Google Analytics on his website so he can adjust his bidding strategies, ad writing, landing pages, etc based on analytics feedback. Additionally he can add option #1 to this.

Option 3. Hire us to (end-to-end "done for you" option) configure/implement Google Analytics, rework and manage his PPC account (best practices implementation, ongoing keyword discovery, ad testing, landing page optimization, ongoing ROI-based bidding, etc) and solve not just today's problem but seize tomorrow's bigger opportunity: capturing more and more business from multiple channels (i.e. multiple online channels, multiple offline channels, all trackable in Google Analytics). Further we can add option #1 to this for a 360-degree solution/peace of mind.

For more info on Option #2 or #3 and a free, no hassle estimate usually within a matter of hours during a normal business day, phone myself (Timothy Seward) or Meredith Smith at (919) 832-3233 or email us today.

We've recorded a few more AdWords strategies and posted a six-minute video to help you get better results with your online advertising.

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