Click fraud is the single biggest threat to search, and by extension to all online advertising at the moment, according to ClickZ expert Gary Stein. While the actual size of the click fraud market is difficult to determine, it’s easy to see how advertisers feel about click fraud, and they don’t feel good about it at all. And that worries the intermediaries too:

JupiterKagan’s search analyst was recently quoted as saying Google decided to make its systems that measure click fraud more transparent in an effort to ensure “Google and click fraud are not synonymous.” Talk about a threat to the brand.

There have been various arguments that click fraud isn’t a problem at all and Stein examines these one by one. Most of them are ultimately found to have little real validity:

• The number of clicks is small. — False
• Click fraud is easy to detect. — True
• The market will correct itself. — False
• Clicks can be removed from bills. — True, but…

Stein argues that “if PPC becomes synonymous with click fraud, regardless of the statement’s verifiable reality, advertiser confidence will drop like a stone. With that gone, there goes investment, too. If confidence is gone, protestations that click fraud is really not a problem will fall on deaf ears. Those ears will have gone on to other advertising methods.” And he proposes a simple solution that doesn’t really seem like a total solution but would certainly be a big step in the right direction:

What should PPC vendors do about click fraud? Simple: take it seriously. If the threat of click fraud lies primarily in its perception in the marketplace, vendors must be up to the task. Freeing up information so operators have a better chance of finding problems is good, as is putting together specific teams to not only police the network but also talk with customers. Vendors should learn from craigslist and eBay and put a “flag” button on their management interfaces, letting customers click their way to alleviating (or at least airing) concerns.

Source: Gary Stein. “Click Fraud Rears Its Ugly Head,” ClickZ Experts 07/31/06. http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3622994.

Related Posts

“Click Fraud on the Rise,” eBizTutors Biz Bits Blog 07/20/06. http://www.ebiztutors.com/blog/index.php/?p=97.
“Click Fraud and Your Business,” eBizTutors Biz Bits Blog 06/21/06. http://www.ebiztutors.com/blog/index.php/?p=69.

Bookmark to: