Click Fraud Blog
Clicking Content Ads in Exchange for A Quality Post
July 4th, 2008
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Here is an ethical dilemma in the click fraud arena, please leave your point of view in the comment field below.
Joe Bloggs is a tech savvy individual who reads many online blogs.
Whilst searching for a technical answer, he is directed to a particular site via a search engine query and finds the exact solution he needs.
He notices that the site is running Adsense ads, and knowing that the website owner will be rewarded if he clicks on the ad, he selects a potentially useful ad from the list displayed.
He clicks on the ads displayed and visits the site, gives a quick review of the product and leaves without making a purchase.
Is this click fraud, or is the advertiser getting their desired action from the site, a click and the attention?
Over to you, let the debate begin.
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Posted in Features |
July 4th, 2008
July 4th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I’ve just read your guest post at Problogger.net and came here to see what your blog had to offer. I’m glad that the very first post I found here is such a thought-provoking one.
I’m not sure that this could be called click fraud. After all, Joe visited that blog because he was interested in its niche. Cotextual ads should fit a blog’s topic, so Joe clicked on an ad that was presumably related to his tastes and interests. All right, his main intention wasn’t to make a purchase, but simply help the blogger. Still, that doesn’t mean that he would never ever purchase anything. The advertiser might offer something that he’d find truly valuable and, that being the case, he would end up taking the desired action (buying, signing up, subscribing etc.) even if he initially didn’t plan it.
Advertisers should never forget that it’s their responsability to make their products and services look attractive to as many visitors as possible. Simply displaying ads all over the Internet isn’t enough. No matter how eager a potential client is, if she clicks on an ad and is taken to a confusing, slow-loading or misleading page, she will probably change her mind and search for a competitor.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:34 am
@Karen - good point about the contextual nature of these programs.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
That is not click fraud.
The purpose of a Google contextually placed ad is to attempt to generate interest in a site visitor and get the visitor to visit the advertiser’s site. Both of those goals were accomplished albeit the interest was generated for a secondary reason as well - the ad was interesting AND the user wanted the webmaster to have a reward.
We assume that the end result is that someone wants us to buy something. However, one could just as easily set up a blank web site with a black background and absolutely no content whatsoever, and then advertise the web site using Google’s ads. The end result is actually hits on the site, not product sold.