Click Forensics also helps ad networks and publishers that purchase traffic directly through CPC campaigns. Click Forensics delivers the following benefits to the buy side of the traffic acquisition equation:

• Eliminate invalid traffic and click fraud
• Reduce wasted ad spend
• Improve conversion rates from CPC campaigns
• Keyword optimization 
• Bid keyword vs. search keyword analysis for campaign improvement

By eliminating unwanted invalid traffic from campaigns, including click fraud, Click Forensics improves the overall return on ad spend and increases conversion rates. 

Billing audit reports are a concise snapshot of all campaign click types with a categorization of all invalid or low-quality traffic for a given time period. Billing audits typically serve as the jumping off point for any traffic quality improvement initiative, as they provide a detailed accounting of all suspect traffic.

As traffic quality improvements evolve, billing audit reports are used to measure the improvements over time.

Intelligent Exclusion™
A primary method for improving traffic quality across campaigns is to create intelligent exclusion lists for ad providers. "Intelligent exclusion" means limiting ad placement to those areas that drive high quality (converting) traffic and avoiding those areas known to produce low-quality (or fraudulent) traffic.

The Campaign Advisor reports provide the ability to create intelligent exclusions that maximize campaign results. Intelligent exclusions are created by sorting all attributes of paid clicks. All traffic is listed, ranked, and can be sorted by various attributes including impact on overall campaign results. Intelligent exclusion lists can then be created, exported, and delivered to search engines and ad networks to proactively eliminate ad placements that result in low-quality traffic from undesirable sources. For example:

• Poor quality publishers can be excluded from future campaigns.
• Traffic from outside the campaign's geo-target can be excluded.
• Broad match non-converting keywords can be excluded.
• Known offenders can be identified by site or IP address and excluded from future campaigns.

By excluding underperforming traffic, SEM campaigns receive improved conversion rates and ROAS.

Bid Keyword vs. Search Keyword
Click Forensics reports keyword click-through and conversion results. Click Forensics' special focus on invalid rates and poorly-performing traffic, provides a different lens through which to view campaign results, thus differing from a typical campaign management or bid optimization tool.

Results are reported on an individual keyword level, or aggregated by ad group or campaign. Click Forensics provides deep and different insight into campaign optimization. Sorting non-converting keywords in order of total cost over time and comparing to the associated search term always uncovers opportunities for campaign improvement. For example, if the keyword "golf club" is driving lots of traffic for an advertiser but delivering no conversions because the advertiser is a private country club with a golf course, this represents an opportunity to specify "golf club" and other associated terms as negative keywords, thus simultaneously reducing costs and improving conversion rates.

• Eliminate 90% of invalid traffic in SEM campaigns
• Redirect 10% of total SEM spend to conversion-producing sources
• Increase conversion rates by 10-20%

The chart below shows a sample ROI from a Click Forensics customer. The return from SEM management is measured in real dollars saved through intelligent exclusion, keyword optimization, and refunds received from major ad providers. The Click Forensics cost is the dotted blue line, just a small fraction of the total savings and refunds.