With the release of their 6.1 product, ClickTracks has taken a step away from the pack of analytics vendors by providing a tool within the product to find “bad patterns” in paid advertising. Ideally these patterns will help site owners and managers to identify click fraud and other unnatural behavior, but it will also be a useful tool in quickly identifying ads or ad groups that are simply not performing well and costing money.
Hot on the release of the product, ClickTracks made a huge announcement last week when they offered $1,000 of the purchase of the ClickTracks Pro, JDC or Agency edition for Google Class Action Lawsuit Members.
The Class Action lawsuit enables any Google advertiser since January 2002 to go back through their records to find evidence of click fraud. Any recipient of the notice is eligible for the ClickTracks discount.
Having used the click fraud product in ClickTracks, I have to say that it is a powerful tool for anyone who is managing a paid campaign. The beauty of the click fraud algorithm in ClickTracks is that it also allows you to quickly see any abnormalities, inconsistent behavior, and identify poorly-performing ads. The layers of measurements that are applied to the ads, such as IP address (more than usual clicks from China or India), ad group comparison, historical comparison, and time on site comparisons, all of which enable a fast and educated judgment to be made on improvements or fraud claims.
By offering this technology and the purchase credit, ClickTracks has distinguished themselves as more than a simply analytics company, but a company that enables web site owners to take control of their site and their budgets. In addition to this aggressive stance on click fraud, ClickTracks is also offering free classes to help site owners understand their analytics and measure success.
All of this reinforces my choice of ClickTracks as a preferred vendor. I love the interface and the ease of accessing information that can make an immediate impact in the success of a website. I also like the culture of the company, but I especially like philosophy of making and doing things differently. It’s hard to say exactly what it is – maybe more user-centric, I think.