According to CNET News.com, Google will be adding a feature to advertiser accounts to show the number of clicks occurring on their ads through click fraud. It will not only show the number of clicks but percentage of clicks as well. It is estimated that 14-20% of clicks are fraudulent on pay per click advertisements. Google had recently been hit with quite a few lawsuits regarding the issue and this seems to be one step toward combatting the problem.
The only thing that seems to worry me is that it seems like they would only be able to estimate which clicks are real and which are not. It is more of a guessing game and even though Google probably has a pretty good algorithm to the problem, there’s no way to be completely accurate.
I guess if you look at it as an estimate it would save advertisers a percentage rather than being precise on how many clicks were fraudulent. As long as they aren’t paying for every click and getting something back, then I’m sure it will keep people happy. I know a lot of people have moved toward cost per acquisition models and this model definitely does not have the click through fraud problem.
That model however is harder to get acquisitions. Most people like to check things out before they purchase. Because there are far less acquisitions than purchases, the cost of each acquisition is much more than paying for a click.
Some people like to just see their name on a site similar to billboard advertising, The advertiser would rather just get their name out and in peoples mind as opposed to pulling a customer right away. Each ad model can achieve this but at different costs.
I have used Adsense, Google’s ad program for webmasters and many other advertising programs from other companies. I have to say they are easy to use for me and I?m pretty happy with the performance. I guess time will tell on what ad models stay and which ones fade away.
