Google Reveals Click Fraud Statistics
We heard the rumors, we felt its existence, and we discussed about it in various forums and discussion boards; and now, it’s official. The online giant,Google ( News - Alert) has finally revealed the data about the click fraud that was thought to exist. In its “Adwords” blog, Google declared that the invalid clicking accounts to a total of ten percent in the total adsense business.
Although Google accepts the problem, it is not willing to accept the seriousness of the problem as yet. Contrary to what advertisers and industry experts believe, Google says problem has not grown out of hand. According to Google the estimated loss to advertisers due to invalid clicking is $100 million a year.
To prevent invalid clicks, Google says it has a three layered system in place. It includes real-time filters, offline analysis, and reactive investigations. These tools enable Google to identify and track levels of clicking activity. Although Google doesn’t promise to eliminate click fraud completely with these tools, the company says it can make sure that the fraud rate does not go beyond 10%.
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t have a clear cut definition as to what it means by “invalid clicks.” Over the years, invalid clicks have grown exponentially and involve many skilled operators and sophisticated software to make the clicks look authentic. And then, there are erroneous clicks, click bombings and other kinds of fraud. It is unclear whether Google has any mechanism to differentiate between these clicks.
According to Google’s business product manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google takes clicking fraud very seriously and the company has invested large sums for research to prevent this fraud. Google thinks its efforts are paying off as invalid clicking rarely exceeds a ten percent of the total percentage. Even the click frauds that are missed by Google and detected by the advertisers themselves hover around just 0.02 percent.
But advertisers and click fraud auditors beg to differ. The auditing firms like ‘Click Forensics,’ estimate that click fraud percentage is much higher than Google’s figures (somewhere around 14%). Google is not amused. Since click fraud auditing firms have made a business out of detecting frauds in Google’s adsense and adwords programs, Google has been constantly accusing these firms of overplaying the click fraud statistics. But many advertisers, who believe they are being robbed of their investments, are signing up with firms like ‘Click Forensics,’ to make sure that frauds are detected by an independent third party.
But advertisers will definitely take note of the fact that Google is admitting the flaw in its advertising model. The company is introducing a number of tools, which are believed to reduce click fraud. For example, Google will soon offer its advertisers an option to blockIP addresses of the companies that are believed to be frauds. Google already pays back the money of the advertiser to a certain extent if the click fraud is detected.
But the fundamental question still remains. Does undetected click fraud (both by Google and auditing firms) still exist? If yes, what amount of advertiser’s money is being robbed?
It will take lot of effort and commitment from Google’s side to unravel this mystery.
[tags]google, adsense, click fraud[/tags]
This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 4:27 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
