July 27, 2006

Google shows invalid clicks - but clickfraud still an issue

by Brian Turner

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Google

Google this week announced that they would be showing Adwords advertisers how many clicks are not being charged to them.

The move is in response to growing unease among advertisers that anywhere between 10%-30% of their PPC spend is being wasted on fraudulent clicks - known as clickfraud.

Although the move by Google should be welcomed, advertisers have complained that it simply shows how many “invalid clicks” that Google is actually able to detect - without actually showing how the invalid clicks were determined.

Even more critically, advertisers are still complaining that it does nothing to show how much clickfraud is still getting through.

The issue of clickfraud is very serious for advertisers, not least because ISP’s such as Google that provide Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising benefit from clickfraud directly in terms of extra revenue generation.

Many advertisers therefore feel that PPC programs have a conflict of interest in terms of delivering fraud-free advertising.

Although the move is another step towards greater transparency on PPC issues, the overall complaint remains that ISPs that supply PPC programs are not being open enough on the issue of clickfraud to properly reassure advertisers.

However, Google has already stated that the more information they provide on their clickfraud detection, the more it can only help clickfraudsters develop more robust and less detectable programs.

In an attempt to be more transparent about clickfraud issues,

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Story link: Google shows invalid clicks - but clickfraud still an issue

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