Eliminating pay per click fraud by blocking IP addresses

[sammyp]

PPC fraud has been a problem for me as I am in a very competitive field. I have had some success recently in that one of the PPC engines, having identified the problem, have blocked some IP addresses so that I dont get charged when they click on my site. This has worked and cut my spend in half. I use several PPC engines and would obviously like to do the same with the other ones. However, the PPC engine that has blocked these IP addresses is refusing to let me know what they are so that I can pass this on to the other PPC engines. Whilst I can see that they may not want to effectively assist one of their competitors, is there any real reason for them not to give me this information, and how can I persuade them to do so?

[Dreamquick]

Whilst I can see that they may not want to effectively assist one of their competitors, is there any real reason for them not to give me this information.

Sounds like you've hit the nail on the head there - this list of IP addresses is something of value to their business model which they believe will give them an edge over their competitors because their PPC results will contain less fraudulent clicks, which by extension equals happier customers.

While they think this is true there's not a hope in hell that they'll release this information for public (or competitor) consumption as they probably believe its one of their USPs and so will guard it like their profits depended on it.

Also as long as they keep this information private there can be no claims of defamation from people using the affected IPs (bearing in mind that the list amounts to < X > is a known fraudulent clicker) - also the fraudsters can't use this data to work out which systems are already flagged and/or which of their techniques actually work.

- Tony

[sammyp]

Thanks for your reply Tony, pretty much what I expected. I suppose I will just have to go through the same exercise with the other PPC engines. If you do have any clever ideas though, let me know! Thanks again.

[Andy_Reid]

sammyp,

We are entering the PPC field with a (pure) meta approach. We have enlisted many of the 2nd/3rd tier engines, but are too small at this point to interest the big boys.

Would you care to say which engine is using the IP blocking list? If we do not already use them, we would like to. An ethical PPC always makes a good addition!

Thanks.

Andy