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Click Fraud

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/using-data-to-help-prevent-fraud.html

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/02/invalid-clicks-googles-overall-numbers.html

http://www.google.com/ads/adtrafficquality/

The above links are to Google’s blog and Ad Traffic Quality Center.  Google has put into place, a system of checks to make sure that the clicks that ads receive on Google’s website are in fact valid.  There is such a thing as click fraud in which a person or program intentionally clicks on an advertisement to raise the price that advertisers have to pay to keep the add slot. Google gets money from advertisers every time someone clicks on one of the ads that show up in the search results, so as reassurance to the advertisers; Google has enacted a 3 step system to filter through the clicks so that the advertisers are only charged for valid clicks. The first step of the process is real time filtering, in which automated algorithms detect and nullify clicks they have determined to be invalid.  The second step is the offline analysis, in which the remaining clicks are run through more automated algorithms as well as some manual algorithms to determine the validity of each click.  The last step is a reactive step in which if an advertiser has a question or is suspicious about a certain click, they can have Google investigate the matter.  What some of the algorithms do is monitor where all the clicks are coming from by comparing the ISP numbers of each click.  If a considerable amount of clicks are coming from a certain ISB number, it looks suspicious and gives off the impression that the clicks are invalid.  The vast majority of the filtering happens in the first step while smaller portions can be attributed to the second and even smaller for the third.  In cases when the click cannot be proven to be valid, Google gives the benefit of the doubt to the advertisers and does not charge for the click.  Of all the clicks that Google gets, about 10% of them have consistently be thrown out each quarter.  This 10% is equivalent to 1 billion dollars a year that Google could be making.

The work of Google’s Ad Traffic Quality Control helps determine and verify a legitimate click through rate.  If the click through rates were erroneous, advertisers would lose faith in the product they bid on when a search engine holds an auction for an ad slot.  This false click through rate would give an advertiser an expected value and payoff that could result in a company losing money and bidding on something with more cost than value.  For a VCG or GSP auction to work effectively, the value of the product must be correct.  With Google’s system in place, the advertisers can be assured that they get their money’s worth.

Comments

One Response to “ Click Fraud ”

  • Dannial Bright

    great post by google and nice task of your right click detection on ads that your costumer pay for right click. Your click detection method is awesome
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