No one wants to think about the possibility of click fraud. It’s yet another thing to have to worry about, watch for, and wonder about – is it happening to you? Did you know that upwards of 20% of each dime you spend on pay-per-click ads might be wasted due to click fraud?

That’s a pretty high percentage and it’s not great for your advertising and operating budget! But if you’re advertising with Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or Microsoft adCenter among a host of others, you need to be fully aware of the risks and what you can do about them.

Click fraud is, unfortunately, not an isolated event that you’re immune to. Are you wondering where fraudulent clicks come from? Unfortunately, the majority of them come from your competitors and the website owners that are working with search engines on a revenue-sharing program.

They’re the ones who have agreed to feature your ads on their websites, and they get a cut of every click. It’s sad to think that competitors think it’s ethical to commit click fraud, but some unscrupulous ones do.

They think that if they can drain your advertising budget, you’ll be forced to stop keyword bidding or at least reduce your own activity, leaving them more room to strengthen their own rank. This is terribly unethical, but it’s not uncommon.

It’s also disturbing that greedy publishers might try to cheat the system (and you) by encouraging their visitors to click on your ads even if they have no intention of purchasing from you or interest in what you’re offering. Some publishers will be brazen and just do the clicking themselves.

You might think that a click here and a click there isn’t that big of a deal. If that was the end of it, it might not be. But a few clicks here and there over a period of days, weeks and months can end up being a pretty big expense for nothing.

The answer to this growing problem could be AdWatcher. AdWatcher is a clever set of tools that helps you make sure that your ROI is maximized at all times. It works with PPC campaigns like Google AdWords and other search engine’s advertising programs, and with banners, links and email marketing, too.

AdWatcher is effective for monitoring your return on investment, detecting click fraud, and managing other aspects of your PPC advertising as well. Probably the most prominent feature of AdWatcher is its ability to help you detect and reduce both click fraud and clicks that are poor performers.

You can find out if you have may fraudulent activity coming from publishers and you can block IP addresses that are suspicious. If you find that you’re getting clicks from poor referrers, you can block them as well.

AdWatcher also helps you find out which keywords are doing poorly so that you can eliminate their use and opt for better performers. The ad tracking technology that AdWatcher offers can help you analyze your results for better optimization as well.

If you’re looking to analyze which of your campaigns are making the most and least money, AdWatcher can help you track your conversion rates, visitors, leads, and sales from each ad. You can even test multiple landing pages simultaneously to see which ones work best. Tools include snapshots of your ad campaigns and drill down tools for detailed information.

Essentially what you’re doing with AdWatcher is detecting and guarding against click fraud and gaining the ability to fully analyze each campaign to find out which ones are working, which are not, and why. The overall effect is cost savings and a much more efficient ad campaign.

AdWatcher provides information in real time – no waiting for updates. This is a real help when you are working to reduce problems and maximize strengths. You can have updates emailed to you and download your information for further investigation at your leisure.

AdWatcher offers a 30-day free trial to new users. This is a good way to check it out and learn to use the many tools that are offered. When you find all the ways it can help you, not the least of which is detecting and preventing click fraud, you’ll probably want to add it to your battery of Internet marketing tools that make it much easier to be productive and profitable.

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