Who's Getting What Out Of The iTunes/Facebook Deal?

Google Actually Opening Up About Clickfraud Numbers

from the didn't-see-that-coming dept

Wed, Jul 26th 2006 2:32am — Mike Masnick

It really was just a couple of days ago that we were wondering why Google was so secretive about clickfraud numbers -- as the complete blackout on info caused advertisers to question whether or not they were throwing away money when advertising with Google. It's not clear if it was just a sudden epiphany, the ongoing lawsuits over clickfraud or (perhaps) the fact that they felt clickfraud was finally under control -- but Google is now going to start revealing to advertisers how many fraudulent clicks Google believes they've received. It's certainly not as open as some advertisers would like, but it's a big step in the right direction.

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12 Comments

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chucklebutte (profile), 26 Jul 2006 @ 4:54am

um.. w00t?
Last
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awkm, 26 Jul 2006 @ 5:20am

lawl 2nd
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Ryan, 26 Jul 2006 @ 5:48am

the reason for inflated numbers is due to the way marketers think.

I've worked for/with several companies that believe any click that doesn't result in a purchase or a contact lead is fraudulent.

Some considered any click that didn't result in 3 page views fraudulent.

I feel if more marketers knew how to only bid on proper targeted keywords, AND make them direct to specific well designed landing pages, then they'd see less "fraud"

examples include bidding on the word "home" when a better word would be "new home for sale" or bidding on "web" when you sell "php web hosting"

These aren't fraudulent clicks, they're crappy management... yet i'm still betting that a LOT of companies consider them fraudulent.
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scott hoeppner, 26 Jul 2006 @ 6:33am

darn i'm bring heat to google by comparing offers in the right hand corner soo many for webhosting/server hosting type things. :D. i always did wonder what click fraud is(as it'd be stupid for google to fake thoose numbers) as its a waste of time to click link load page and go back to repeat for no reason.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jul 2006 @ 7:48am

click fraud happens..
it's not a waste of time if you have a website and google is paying you for click thru's.

I know of a guy who was making some $50-$80/month by loading his page from various locations (he was a traveling IS tech guy) and everytime he clicked a link and browsed around he would earn some cash.

He did this with enough frequency to earn enough money to pay for his hosting and internet connection...
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pshhhhhhhhhhh, 26 Jul 2006 @ 8:04am

Anonymous Coward...
That is a some pretty amazing stuff. $50-80 per month? wow. can we say retirement?
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David, 26 Jul 2006 @ 8:49am

Re: Anonymous Coward...
It's not retirement. But if 500 people did that, then Google would be sending out $25,000 each month that it has no business sending out. And if you paid 1000 people in Bumfukistan $1 a day to do that, you could clear $20,000 a month with virtually no work. And if you took his $80 a month rate instead, he'd actually get closer to $50K a month. And if they clicked faster than he did while he was traveling around, well... you see how that fraud can be problematic?
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Herky, 26 Jul 2006 @ 9:08am

Re:
Ryan,

There are various two main types of click fraud.

Competitive click fraud: Comptetitors (bots, employees) clicking on your links excessively to drive up your cost and lower your returns. Several motives here.

Publisher Click Fraud: Publisher driving clicks to their adsense website so they earn more money. (The major problem most people face)

Most marketers don't have sophisticated tracking in place and look at their PPC spend on a pretty macro level. Regardless of how sophisticated someone is with keywords, there is fraud and it can be found. We do a lot of Geo-targeted CPC all around the country. One example we had was seeing hundreds of clicks from one site that resulted in no leads when we consistently convert 8-22% of clicks into leads (generally keyword driven). What does Google say, "We'll look into it"
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Jul 2006 @ 12:22pm

Re: um.. w00t?
"First Post"-ers have deformed or non-functional genitalia. I laugh at their pathetic dysfunction in life.
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Tom, 26 Jul 2006 @ 12:53pm

ADSENSE
Mostly the fruad comes from Google's Adsense Network of third-party websites that earn commission for clicks. (Yahoo has their own version)

You know the "Ads by Gooooooogle..." you see on websites? Those websites earn commision if you click the ad.

Network farms can be created in foreign countries that can mask their IP addresses and create false Adsense Network websites for keywords that can cost upwards of $5.00 per click. And then they farm their website with their network and rake commision in. Meanwhile companies believe they are receiving web traffic. Or in my case I monitor logs close enough to take note of keywords that result in less than 1 second of visit time.

There is alot more to it..just kind of nutshell for ya.

I pulled all our companies out of the Adsense network on google, and when I told our google rep WHY (because of fraud) --- She simply said she understood.

Note: That was about 6 months ago, I'm sure they've improved their system a bit...but their are forums about how to scam clicks that are alive.

Tom aka white devil
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Search Engines WEB, 26 Jul 2006 @ 4:06pm

Why is this Click Fraud
of course, this is too much to ask, BUT IDEALLY, in their reports, Google would not only indicate HOW MUCH click fraud occurred - but WHY it was deemed click fraud.
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Veer, 27 Jul 2006 @ 2:31am

It's a Fraud release
I think it's just a trick that Google is playing. Everyone knows the amount of fraud that goes on with Google's ads. And people have been paying for those clicks.

Now Google, in tyring to save its image, plans to make the number of fraud clicks public. What a sham. Basically they will make highly reduced numbers public and blame technology for not being able to make accurate estimates. The paying public will shut up thinking Google is oh-so-good and still pay for fraud clicks, albeit 10-20% lesser fraud clicks.
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