poster_boy - 6:16 pm on Dec 14, 2006 (gmt 0)

Shorebreak -

You, sir, are exactly right. I couldn't have stated it any better.

If you've never viewed referring URL logs to analyze exactly where your SEM traffic is coming from - please do. You'll realize that everything you ever thought you knew about the conversion rates of your keywords is completely wrong.

The conversion rate that you always assumed was an accurate measure of the number of people interested in your product out of those who clicked on your ad - a figure that you've tracked and obssesed over - is really just a watered down number. The true conversion rate from your ad showing as a result of actual queries on legitimate engines and partner sites is staggeringly high. Similarly staggering, however, is the amount of absolute junk traffic driven per keyword through usually only a handful of the "distribution fraud" sites that Shorebreak speaks to.

Do yourself a favor. View your logs. Understand your true conversion rate. Think about all that you do to optimize your ads to try an eek out a mere 5% or 10% lift, and then realize that the very best optimization that you can do is to eliminate the fraud - which can garner lifts of 10% to as much as 50% in your ROI.

Document the fraud. Protest it. It can and will result in credits - not just from Google, but from each of the prominent engines.