Masks Off On The Issue Of Exaggerated Click Fraud Detection Reports By Third-party Auditors

Masks were removed on the subject of click fraud detection at one of the departments of Google, because a leading specialist of the company dealing with security issues, revealed the results of the research the goal of which was to damage the reputation of the audits performed by third-party click fraud monitoring software.

Thorough tech investigation by the company’s professionals unveiled major issues in the operation of some click fraud detection employees, explaining the reason behind the rumors about the large size of click fraud problematic issues, which appears to be an exaggeration. Here we present some details of this study to inform marketers of the difficulty with click fraud detection and to utilize these data to enhance the development of click fraud monitoring software. Reported data on the issue of click fraud detection contains confirmation of inadequacy of some click fraud monitoring software such as AdWatcher or ClickForensics. Some experts find the battle of Google on click fraud quite sensible.

The answer to the issue of click fraud has been found. It would not damage pay per click adverts as such because it is entirely trustworthy. Theoretically, it can be done by an operation that was available and proved to be successful in regular adverts for decades. It exists and can be utilized. It permits the company’s providing search platforms to serve as a sort of “arbitrage” when it comes to click fraud detection and performance of click fraud monitoring software, and it will put advertising specialists at ease about this issue.

It is possible to work on click fraud detection while cooperating with some leading companies in this field as well as search engine companies. Click fraud detection is the correct way to solve this problem. ClickForensics, for instance, strives to cooperate on click fraud detection with IT companies, search engines, and advertising specialists by preparing quick problem resolution to be beneficial for the whole IT field. Jointly it is easier to create trustworthy relationships to pursue the path of click fraud detection and increase the volume of pay per click advertisements with the help of click fraud monitoring software.

One of the executives of Yahoo tried to discuss the “optimistic aspect” meaning the field group which had been created to define the terms of click fraud detection activities such as “clicks” and “click fraud”.

One of the media specialists who was present on the panel got down to the bottom of the issue. The terms related to click fraud that was defined such as “clicks” and “click fraud” were still in the arbitrage sphere of such search engine companies like Google or Yahoo, who make a real decision in case they need to decide if certain advertisers are obligated to pay per click.

The statement on the issue of click fraud had not been released till the SES meeting. The fact is that the masks are off and the facts are coming out. The report on click fraud and click fraud monitoring software was quite argumentative and indicates the growth of click fraud protection business. However, the problems that exist between the leading firms make it evident that to make everybody cooperate on the issue of click fraud detection is a challenging task, but essential for continual existence. This perspective development depends on the appearance of an honest company, which can perform arbitrage of the situations that may occur.

Some panel members point out that when defining a term “click fraud”, it is impossible to reveal it to the audience, for the reason that some not very ethical customers may use this situation to their benefit and initiate huge click fraud. But if the term is not unveiled, it will be difficult to explain advertisers the charges imposed per some clicks that may be disputed.

With all the information available, it is still unclear whether an individual click was a result of click fraud. For click fraud detection it is essential to have data from both sides – from publishing platform and from customers to perform investigation by arbitrage company. Advertisers as well as Google are getting more forceful and are determined to take more measures to ensure click fraud protection.

Google has analyzed the results of work performed by some click fraud detection companies and has unveiled major mistakes in data handling. It explains the reason behind inflated data after estimations done by these click fraud detection firms. Leading explanations contained in the report come to two reasons of the issue:

• due to events that were not properly characterized

• as a result of data confusion

The first reported discovery is the most important reason of claimed inflated click fraud data. The thing is that click fraud analyzers fail to calculate real advert clicks. Instead, they utilize different other info such as page visits. Page reloading incidents also get counted as click fraud and get reported to advertisers, although no click on Google advert was performed.

Another finding is connected with the use of some pieces of software called “cookies”, allowing tracking of activities conducted by the clients. As the result of wrong cookie use, the data can be confused and appear as click fraud.

This sort of mistakes can produce exaggerations in reported data regarding click fraud detection. One can see that the info has been presented as the result of errors and that the info on general amount of clicks was erroneous. For example, if a number of clicks that were logged as fraudulent in the reports exceed the number of clicks registered by Google, it is evidently a wrong data report.

Reported findings show more details of wrong methods used by third party consulting and auditing firms that performed click fraud detection process. Such companies as ClickFacts and AdWatcher produced flawed reporting. It may harm advertisers who change the advert campaigns on the basis of the wrong data presented erroneously by the auditors. Google is determined to inform customers about such incidents and track the performance of advisers encouraging them to enhance their methodology to deliver valuable services to their clients.

If you are interested in getting more relevant information on click fraud, please read one of the previously posted articles.