Posts Tagged ‘Click Fraud’

Click Fraud Is Solved !!! (well maybe)

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Bromba GMbh have made an advancement in biometric security which may stop click fraud forever!!!

The new development is a biometric reader on a mouse.

Here is my theory on how click fraud will be wiped from the face of the earth.

  • User clicks on an Awords ad
  • The mouse send your personal biometric data to Google (probably in the clear knowing Google).
  • Google’s evil database of all our personal information is interrogated and matched to your record
  • Your demographics, credit score, passed purchasing history and suitability for the product are all measured, and then and only then are you passed through to the landing page of the target company

Big brother is not just watching, he is sitting waiting to analyse all your clickety clicks.

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September Bubble Up

Saturday, September 29th, 2007

I am bubbling up my favourite posts from September from the depths of my blog to give them a second airing

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Click Fraud’s Caring Sharing Few

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

One of the biggest problems in the monitoring and investigation of click fraud is getting the real figures of the problem. There is no shared analytic data between advertisers, click fraud software suppliers and the search engines and as a result levels of click fraud differ from 0.02% according to Google up to 50% from some click fraud software suppliers.

A few shining lights stand out from the crowd. These organisations are collecting large volumes of data and are creating a transparent and available view of click fraud to the wider advertising audience.

At the head of this field is Click Forensics, Inc. This company publishes the highly acclaimed click fraud index on the back of it’s click forensics monitoring solution. Their software is free to small time advertisers and chargeable to larger corporations. The most important part of the process is that the data is captured centrally and analytical research is done on a large data set. The result of their investigations are published quarterly as the Click Fraud Index. The last reported CFI was at 15.8%

Click Forensics are fearless in their pursuit of transparency and their CEO Tom Cuthbert is in constant gladiatorial combat with Shuman Ghosemajumder Google’s invalid click Czar ( some call him the click fraud MIB, covering up all traces of indiscretion). They joust on the real level of click fraud. Google doubts the validity of Click Forensics data gathering technique and in return they question Google level of transparency.

Click forensics is not the only player in this arena, and these groups are not providing these services for altruistic reasons, they are either trying to sell click fraud software to advertisers or are attempting to sell the data collected to the paid placement companies such as the search engines.

I would advocate that all advertisers participate in some sort of data sharing scheme, in a previous post Fair Isaccs were recruiting advertisers to share their data under tight non-disclosure agreements.

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Problem With Google’s Invalid Click Reporting Function

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

A quick post to raise a rye smile, I was submitting my usual monthly click fraud report and it is too big for the Google system to handle and it was rejected, there is just too much fraudulent activity from the content network this month.

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Testing the Google Invalid Click Filters

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007

I have been the recipient of a barrage of invalid clicks, what is more I know exactly who has committed this indiscretion; Google.

My click fraud monitoring software has detected a large number of click emanating from an IP address in Mountain View California.

These clicks are over a number of keywords from and via and unknown user agent i.e. it is not a browser and the clicks seemed to display and automated pattern in that they happened very quickly with a very small time on the site.

A quick check of the whois records shows the IP address belongs to one of Google’s servers. I am 100% sure that the the clicks are a system check by the Adwords program and the Google filtering system will mark the clicks as invalid but I intend to submit an invalid click investigation report to Google and ask them to confirm that clicks emanating from inside of the company are not credited to my account as true clicks.

The complete lack of visibility of the filtering process, a necessary evil to protect the integrity of the process from abuse, leaves advertisers in a predicament where the phrase trust me I’m a search engine rings true and we have to assume nothing is getting though the search engine filters.

I already have my headline ready for tabloid publication if it turns out I have paid for these clicks

“Google Gazumps Genuine Growth”

I will report back on the post in a future post.

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Aaron Wall - "Click Fraud is a Huge Issue"

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Acclaimed SEO consultant and author of the best selling e-book SEO Book claims that

“Click fraud is a huge issue”

In his e-book he talks about filtering out sites which are creating low quality click from the Google content network. This is an extremely effective way to block fraudulent clicks by restricting which sites publish your ads by monitoring for IP addresses which repeatedly click but generate no value. A word of caution is that man ISP hide their users behind one IP address, so you may be restricting all of AOL when it is only one user from that network.

His seminal work on SEO which is constantly update as SEO techniques evolve can be downloaded from the authors own website (af) SEOBook.

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What is Click Fraud?

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

In short click fraud is the nefarious clicking on pay per click ads in an effort to gain an advantage other than that specified by the Advertiser.

Click fraud comes in two main types, clicks to increase a content publishers revenue and clicks by competitors to impact on a company?s Adwords budget.

Fraudulent clicks to increase a publishers revenue is when a company or individual is using the Adsense program to monetise their web site content. Using this programme, Google display relevant ads on the website and pay the owner when someone clicks on the ads or in the case of cost per impression for a certain number of visits to the site to display an ad.

The fraud occurs when the owner clicks on links displayed on their site to increase the revenue generated. These clicks may be manual or automatic via a ClickBot (discussed later).

Competitor fraud is when companies or individuals click on the ads of companies competing on the same keywords as themselves in an effort to drive up their advertising costs or to exhaust the competitions daily adwords budget so they can then display their own competing messages to sell the same or similar products.

Click-bots are the way that organised click fraud is committed. The bot is a piece of computer code which is programmed to click on a particular ad over and over again automatically.

Should advertisers be afraid of click fraud? Yes they should, it is thought to be one of the main concerns for Google about their future and there are reports of large numbers of hijacked computers which can act as a network of Clickbots launching sustained attacks. These are being employed by organised crime gangs so the report says.

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Click Fraud is catered for by max CPC

Saturday, September 8th, 2007

I read with great interest about one commentators idea that market forces and adjustment to max cpc cancels out click fraud.

In their post the blog talk from computer to cd they state:

The key point is that click fraud is already taken into effect when advertisers select the highest amount they will bid. For instance, there is no difference whether an advertiser pays $0.83/click for 121 clicks with 21 being fraudulent, or $1.00/click for 100 clicks when there is absolutely no fraud. In either case, the advertiser pays $100 and generates a profit of $20, and Overture and/or Google make $100. What changes is the advertiser’s yield (e.g., the percent of clickers who purchased the book) which in turn effects their highest bid price. That is, with fraud, 30 out of 121 clickers (24.8%) purchased the book, and without fraud 30 out of 100 clickers (30%) purchased it. Without fraud, the bid price in an efficient market will rise from $0.83 to $1.00.

In summary, online advertisers must focus on analyzing and improving their internal metrics (e.g., conversions) and not worry about click fraud as it is already incorporated into keyword bid prices. Hopefully, the frivolous lawsuits and refund requests spawned by apparent click fraud will end as those in the industry recognize this undeniable fact.

I am not sure if this model stands up to a sustained distributed attacks from click bots, but I think this is a very interesting concept.

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Combating Click Fraud E-Document

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

I have recently come across an interesting e-document called (AF) Combating Click Fraud. It is written by IncreMental Advantage and has contributions from some of the major players in the click fraud arena.

The publishers review is shown below:

While its origins go back to the late 1990’s, its only over the past few years that “click-fraud” has come to the forefront and become a topic of concern for advertisers, web publishers, and search engines alike. IncreMental Advantage estimates that click fraud cost Internet advertisers close to $ 700 million in 2006. Click fraud has become so pervasive that it has begun to significantly stunt the growth of Internet advertising. Given the global reach of the internet and e-commerce, the issue is not isolated to the United States. And while there are many differing views on the severity of the issue, no one can deny its existence. Among the issues addressed in this report are: • Competitors committing click fraud • Keyword manipulation including jamming, gap surfing, and friendly URLs • Clickbots and click farms • Domain tasting • Click fraud arbitrage • Litigation against click fraudsters • Technological solutions This report features interviews with senior executives of companies offering technological solutions and financial alternatives as a means to combat click fraud. These include:

  • Fair Isaacs Corporation
  • Authenticlick • ClickLab, LLC
  • Think Partnership
  • MordComm, Inc. /AdWatcher
  • ClickDefense Inc.
  • ClickFacts Inc.
  • IonReport, LLC

The e-document is available for download from amazon.

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Getting a Click Fraud Refund from Your PPC Provider

Thursday, August 30th, 2007

In this post I discuss the mechanics of obtaining a refund from the three main search engines Google, Yahoo and Microsoft if you suspect you are the subject of invalid clicks.

The first stage of your click fraud reparation process is to gather the appropriate evidence of a click fraud attack. The more detail you have, the more likely that your supplier will give a refund.

I have developed an MS word template for evidence gathering, please leave a comment on this post and I will e-mail a copy.

The information required is:

  • A brief description of why you think you have been the subject of click fraud
  • Date and time of attack
  • IP addresses of problem hosts
  • Campaign details
  • How much refund you think you are entitled to

Once the evidence has been gathered it needs to be submitted the the search engine

Google

The Big G has a special on-line form to complete to request an investigation.

They request much of the information already mentioned above, but without the value of the suspected fraud. I would advise completing my form and sending this to the Google operative who contacts you during the subsequent inquiry.

Yahoo

The second placed search engine has a special name for a click fraud investigation and that is a “Click Investigation”. To obtain start an investigation, go to your search marketing account and click on customer support link at the top of the page.

Set the type of inquiry as click protection and the subject line to “click investigation request” supply the following information

  • The date(s) of the click activity within the last 60 days you would like investigated
  • The specific keyword(s) associated with the clicks.
  • Use the “Attachment” tab if you want to upload a screenshot or additional information, including your weblogs.

The new traffic quality centre has a very concise section on applying for click fraud reparation including an SLA for response times to your request.

Microsoft

The Microsoft Adcenter does not have a dedicated method for initiating a click fraud investigation, rather you are directed to the central customer support function.

If you need personal assistance and can’t find your answer in Help, we invite you to phone (800) 518-5689 or submit an e-mail request at the Customer Support e-mail website.

Microsoft AdCenter Customer Support is available 7 days a week from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time in the United States.

They do not state what information is required so It is advisable to collect the data mentioned above

I hope that helps in the first stage of initiating an investigation. The next post in this series will discuss what to do if your provider says no to your reparation request.

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