Unlocking PPC Campaign Potential: Safeguarding Your Ad Budget from Returning Users

Marketers are seizing the chance to connect with an ever-expanding online audience. The proliferation of smart devices has opened new doors for user engagement, and businesses are eager to tap into this thriving market.

According to Statista, as of October 2024, there were 5.52 billion internet users worldwide, representing 67.5% of the global population. With such a vast potential audience at their fingertips, marketers are employing innovative strategies to attract and retain users, focusing on personalisation and loyalty programs to keep customers coming back. However, this success comes with an unexpected challenge: returning users unknowingly consuming ad budgets, hindering campaigns from achieving their full potential and compromising ROI. Without addressing this issue, marketers risk wasting valuable resources.

The Hidden Obstacle

Returning users present an unseen hurdle for marketers. Many of these loyal customers use paid search ads to revisit their favorite sites. While this seems harmless, it poses a significant threat to PPC (pay-per-click) campaign budgets over time.

When returning users click on paid ads to navigate back to a site, it inflates customer acquisition costs (CAC) without contributing to new revenue. For example, we’ve observed cases where companies spent as much as 95% of their branded keyword budget on existing customers, exhausting ad spend without generating new conversions.

Another consequence is distorted campaign data. Metrics may appear inflated due to returning users using paid ads as shortcuts to the site. This misrepresentation can lead marketing teams to overestimate a campaign’s success, misallocate future budgets, and experience further losses.

Inefficiencies in digital advertising can be costly. Wordstream reports that up to 29% of PPC budgets go toward bidding on brand keywords. Managing returning users effectively is crucial for protecting profits and ensuring the success of future campaigns.

Strategies for Minimising Losses

Marketers can safeguard their ad budgets while fostering positive relationships with returning users through practical tools and strategies. Below are two proven methods to mitigate fraudulent and excessive ad clicks:

Custom Verification Rules
Custom verification rules limit how often users interact with paid ads, preventing repeated clicks from inflating CAC. Once a threshold is reached, the user no longer sees the ad. This protects budgets from both returning users and fraudulent bot traffic.

Tapper’s suite of ad click prevention tools forms the backbone of custom verification rules:

• Suspicious Ad Click Prevention – flags ad clicks where no user interaction (scrolls, clicks) occurs after the script loads. The default threshold is three suspicious sessions per day, customizable by the advertiser.
• Aborted Ad Click Prevention – detects clicks where the ad is clicked, but the page fails to load fully, indicating potential fraud or connectivity issues. This feature blocks further clicks after five aborted sessions per hour.
• Click Fraud Threshold – blocks IPs after repeated clicks, allowing marketers to set how many ad interactions are permitted before the IP is flagged and excluded.
• Custom Invalid Traffic Audiences for Recently Converted Users – for industries with infrequent purchases but high website visits post-purchase (e.g., tracking deliveries), targeting recently converted users can inflate costs without driving new revenue. This feature allows advertisers to exclude recent buyers from acquisition campaigns for a configurable period.

According to Aistratagems, approximately 12% of PPC clicks originate from fraudulent sources, making verification essential for cost control.

Driving Results

As the online market continues to grow, so does the competition. Marketers are eager to make the most of this opportunity to expand their reach and increase revenue. To maximise ROI, it’s essential to protect ad budgets from being eroded by returning users.

By leveraging tools such as custom rules and shadow campaigns, marketers can mitigate unnecessary costs and optimise their PPC campaigns. These strategies not only reduce CAC but also ensure returning users remain engaged without compromising the campaign’s efficiency. With the right approach, marketers can safeguard their investments and unlock the full potential of their digital advertising efforts.