Re: False Clicks/Click Fraud

From: David Yancey <dyancey_at_proactics.com>
Date: Wed 16 Aug 2006 22:33:29 -0500

Brad Jensen seems to think it is "paranoid" to apply solid technical and
online search industry experience toward understanding and avoiding a
known business risk in the name of protecting a new venture and one's
business partners. If being a prudent, careful, and responsible
professional and business owner is "paranoid", well, then, I will be
sure to add that to my qualifications.

He further wheedles me for the details I am not interested in
explaining, since this is not the forum for it. Anyway, to do so would
require a medium heft book. Sorry, Brad, but *I* am not on trial, here
-- it is the fraud-prone PPC industry that is at the heart of this
particular online scumbaggery. It seems very likely that advertisers
are being overcharged somewhere between $2 and $3 *billion* in
fraudulent clickthrough fees in 2006, and I see that number rising
rapidly over the next few years unless the paid search industry cleans
its own house.

We -- my extremely experienced ecommerce software partner and I --
demonstrated quantitatively over a statistically significant volume to
our very rigorous satisfaction that the PPC leads from Google were *more
than* 30% fraudulent. Others have found comparable "performance" with
Google, Yahoo, and the rest. We saw *exactly* the fraudulent clicks,
and, as I said, are sure we missed many others.

Nor did I allege or suggest as Brad claims that our competitors.

"marshaled thousands of computers on different IP
addresses to click on your ads to eat up your ad budget and
drive you from the market with fraudulent clicks."

Instead, I tried to educate non-technical readers (like Brad, in fact)
how relatively easy and common it is now to hire zombie networks for
scripted click-fraud operations. In our case, no such large scale
network would be needed, since we were operating in Beta test mode. All
the bad guys needed to do was watch for our easily identified, precisely
targeted ads when we ran a flight, and then tip their (almost certainly
manual) clicker pals in, in our case, India and Eastern Europe. They
did try and time-slice, but mostly didn't even bother concealing the
baddie IP addresses, probably thinking as a new site we weren't checking
the logs etc.

Brad styles himself a publisher, so may not be familiar with the
economics of e-store and advertising operations. He may not be aware of
how established e-tailers in our and other categories will do whatever
it takes to try and prevent visitors from learning about a potentially
dangerous new competitor. He may not fully understand that the purpose
of SEM/SEO isn't simply to acquire visitors; it is as much about
*blocking* all but the most persistent searchers from seeing the
competition's listing or text ads.

Our sector has several truly vicious competitors, and I am sure there
are many other such sectors across the ecommerce spectrum, so I was not
at all surprised to find this behavior. Paid search is a bonanza, and
where there is a gold rush, there ever will be criminals trying to cash
in on it or exploit it. Sooner or later, those using PPC services
provided by Google and others to compete unfairly will be exposed and
then, late as usual, the FTC will no doubt begin regulating search.
Those who desire a free and unfettered Internet need to realize how the
clickfraudsters are making regulation almost inevitable.

If anyone needs to read more details on the technical ins and outs of
click fraud, the information is all over the web. If one doubts as Brad
seems to that click fraud is indeed a major and growing scam, they may
wish to follow the ongoing research of Ben Edelman of the Harvard Law
School, such as in:

http://www.benedelman.org/news/040406-1.html

After exposing how many major marketers have participated in Spyware,
Ben has this year begun to focus on the click-fraud problem.

Brad may be a new reader, and hence unaware that my ten year web record
includes not only building the fastest-growing online business
publishing group, but then building what experts have described as one
of the most innovative search tools. Trust me, Brad, I don't post
lightly on these matters, because tens of thousands of small online
business operators and readers have looked to me over the past decade
for (free) advice on how to master this stuff. I try to give them the
tips and info they need to survive and thrive.

In this instance, I am advising these good folks to be wary of investing
in paid search, because PPC clickfraud *may* be an extremely serious
threat to their limited promotional budget, depending on what industry
they are in.

David Yancey
Managing Partner -- 22Graphic -- http://www.tootoographic.com
CEO -- Adjunction LLC -- http://www.vivante.com






Received on Wed Aug 16 2006 - 22:33:29 CDT