WARNING – Google AdWords PHISING SCAM – Please Update Your Billing Information

Many of my clients have forwarded an email that they received today that looked like it came from Google AdWords. Luckily for them they did not believe it and instead came to me looking for validation. The email is a fraud attempt known as a PHISHING scam.

Here is a copy of the email, with the hyperlink de-activated:

From: Google Adwords-noreply [mailto:adwords-noreply@google.com] Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 9:28 AMTo: info@fireman247.comSubject: [PHISH] [SPAM] - Please Update Your Billing Information

------------------------Dear Google AdWords Customer!In order to update your billing information, please sign into your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com, and update yourbilling information. Your account will be reactivated as soon as you haveentered your payment details. Your ads will show immediately if youdecide to pay for clicks via credit or debit card. If you decide to payby direct debit, we may need to receive your signed debit authorizationbefore your ads start running, depending on your location. If youchoose bank transfer, your ads will show as soon as we receive yourfirst payment. (Payment options vary by location.)Thank you for choosing AdWords. We look forward to providing you withthe most effective advertising available.Sincerely,The Google AdWords Team------------------------This message was sent from a notification-only email address that doesnot accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If youhave any questions after following the steps above, please visit theGoogle AdWords Help Center athttps://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8336&hl=en_US tofind answers to frequently asked questions and a 'contact us' link nearthe bottom of the page.


Now, I have de-activated the hyperlink in this email because I do not want any unsuspecting people to accidentally click it, however if you were to have held your mouse over the hyperlink that said http://adwords.google.com, and looked at the actual destination URL.

In this case, the destination URL from the hyperlink pointed towards: http://adwords.google.com.fr4xx.cn/select/Login/

Notice the very last part of the URL. Fr4xx.cn. That is the actual destination URL, not the sub domain prefix. So, while this URL does contain the adwords.google.com that we are all familiar with, the actual domain is the last part fr4xx.cn. This is obviously not Google and therefore a PHISING scam.

It’s always important to remember to check the sending email address. This is not necessarily the visible email address that is shown, but the actual email address. If it is not from Google, then it is not an official Google email. The display email address is often not the actual sending address, just like you might see your friends name in the reply to field instead of their email address. You can check the actual sending email address by looking at the header. Go to View/Options, and you will see the header information in a box called “internet headers:”

The bottom line here is that if there was a billing problem with your Google AdWords account, you could always login to your AdWords account and see the notice. This would be my advice, to always check your Google account directly and not rely on the wording of an email.

If you received this email today, or one similar to it, delete it. It’s a fake.

Google has been notified and the violating site has already been shut down. I’m sure new sites will arise and abuse this same scam, so be careful and remember to always check your Google account directly for account notices.

Having an experienced account manager can prevent abuse like this from happening to your account. Contact me today to find out how I can dramatically increase the ROI from your Google AdWords account.

Google Conversion Tracking Accuracy

Google Conversion Tracking Accuracy Problems

I always recommend, in fact, I always insist that my clients implement conversion tracking on their website. It is a fantastic way to evaluate the individual performance of keywords and their ability to “convert” into sales or leads. While it is a great tool for us to use in PPC management, it is important to remember that it is not always accurate.

In reality, Google admits that Conversion Tracking can be off by as much as 60% or more.

Why?

There are many factors that can cause errors in the Conversion Tracking reporting.
· The Automatic deletion of cookies by AntiVirus and other system tools
· Conflicts with Shopping cart functionality
· Bad script placement
· Conflicts with other Conversion Tracking scripts
· Slow Page Load Times
· Evil Voodoo Witch Doctors

I have a client whose Google Conversion Tracking reported 5 “conversions” yesterday. When I called him regarding another issue, I found out that he actually had 19 conversions from Google that day. He knew this because his back end reporting system was more accurate and could track the sales back to Google PPC specifically through the use of keyword level destination URL’s that I had coded with the source and keyword information. Conversion tracking for him only reports about 25% of the actual conversions.

I have another client whose Google account will only show about 5 conversions a month; however he actually receives dozens every day. These are the ones that really drive me crazy, since some conversion track, but most do not. It works, kind of, but not really. I could never use the Conversion Tracking data to actually manage his account. If I did, I would have considered many of his keywords as worthless when in actuality they perform very well.

What then is the solution?

My advice is to use any and all of the tools that you can to help give you the best picture possible regarding the success of your keywords and various campaigns.

Google Analytics is a great FREE tool that can really help paint a clear picture about traffic sources. Their E-Commerce tracking can be difficult for some designers to implement, however when done successfully, I have found it to be very accurate and provide excellent data regarding the ROI from ALL sources of traffic including PPC and Organic. If you have an E-Commerce website, I strongly encourage you to try and implement Google E-Commerce tracking. Even if you don’t have E-Commerce and harvest leads, Google Analytics allows you to set goals, which can also track all traffic sources for their ability to reach the set goal(s).

Another great solution might be your back end administration system. If your shopping cart is sophisticated enough to track traffic sources to sales, then you should definitely use this tool. Sometimes a great deal of work will be required in putting keyword level destination URL’s into the accounts with the necessary tracking information, however the data received is well worth the effort in the long run. These systems seem to be very accurate.

Live Person, or Live Help. Programs that allow you to interact with your web visitors often have decent tracking capabilities implemented. You can see which source sent the visitor to you, what the keyword was, if it was from PPC or organic, and even if they have been there before. I love Live Person and was one of their first BETA testers back when they first came out. It can also provide great data about traffic patterns. When I talk about Live Person to my clients, I always compare it to being a shop owner with a physical location who can actually watch his customers walk around the store and see what they look at and eventually buy. As I put it, it opens your eyes to your customers.

Shopping Cart Module Implementation. Many boxed shopping carts like OSCOMMERCE, CUBECART, ZENCART, and others, have the support of a developer community who create “Modules” that allow for the correct implementation of many features, including Conversion Tracking. I always recommend using the working module for your cart if available. The headaches that they save alone are worth the small fee that some might charge. I have found some clients who had horrible conversion tracking on their own, but once they used the module the accuracy greatly improved.

Finally, the bottom line is communication. If you use a PPC Marketing Management Consultant like me, then communicating with them regarding your data and theirs can provide some good insight into your strategies effectiveness. By combining all of the data sources and talking about the results, the real effectiveness of your campaigns can be realized, adjusted, and optimized for better performance.

If your looking to take your marketing campaigns to the next level, I provide a FREE consultation and reasonable rates based on your marketing budget. I invite you to contact me today to find out how I can help optimize your PPC campaigns: Patrick Burke (847) 483-4995.

Google, Yahoo, and MSN, all provide FREE conversion tracking scripts through their PPC advertising management interfaces.
For more information on Google Conversion Tracking Click Here.