A Coalition of the Unwilling

Posted by tim on August 03, 2006 at 04:18 PM

There’s been recent news about Google, Yahoo!, and MSN joining a coalition that also includes the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and the Media Rating Council in order to standardize the definitions of click fraud. At first read, this seems like big and welcome news in the search marketing industry. And it is. It’s about time anyway. Google and Yahoo! especially have known that click fraud has long been one of the major concerns for anyone who’s dabbled in pay-per-click for any significant time or with any real money. The fraud has been around almost as long at PPC itself (younger...

Continue reading "A Coalition of the Unwilling" »

Courts and Click Fraud

Posted by tim on April 19, 2005 at 02:12 PM

The story isn't new, but I've been away for a while and I wanted to comment on this. On the topic of the click fraud lawsuit. An interesting situation and one that I'll be watching closely. It's a shame really that it's come to this. My biggest concern is that this will lead to even more walls going up between the engines and advertisers (depending of course, on how this all shakes out). In my experience, the engines are very protective of their processes. "Don't look at the man behind the curtain" and all that fun stuff. I realize they...

Continue reading "Courts and Click Fraud" »

More on Click Fraud

Posted by tim on March 03, 2005 at 10:34 AM

It may be coincidence, it might have something to do with the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York right now, but whatever it may be, click fraud is still a very hot topic (and me thinks it's becoming a bit of a sore subject as well). Here are just a few more recent mentions of click fraud. I've covered the topic pretty well, but I just want to share some other view points on this. Other Shoe on Keyword Prices, Clickfraud - from John Batelle's Searchblog Click Fraud Experts: Marketers Need More Info From Search Engines - at MediaPost...

Continue reading "More on Click Fraud" »

Impression Fraud, I Dub Thee Keyword Hijacking!

Posted by tim on February 15, 2005 at 09:37 AM

Last month, in writing about click fraud, I had briefly touched on the idea of 'Impression Fraud'. At the time, there had been very little talk of it, and even through today, we haven't really seen any evidence that leads us to believe any of our clients have been a victim of this attack. It comes as no surprise though, that this tactic is already picking up speed and gaining attention. Several sources, beginning early this month, have been talking about this. The tag being applied is 'Keyword Hijacking'. Bots are being written to take advantage of primarily Google AdWords...

Continue reading "Impression Fraud, I Dub Thee Keyword Hijacking!" »

The Scourge of Click Fraud - Part III

Posted by tim on January 26, 2005 at 09:33 AM

Stopping Click Fraud It's important for agencies to take an active role in looking for and defending against click fraud. Granted, in an overall marketing/media mix, search may only be a minor percentage of the total budget, but isn't it still imperative to maximize a client's spend? Aside from protecting and maximizing money though, you've also got to protect the brand for your clients. Often times, especially with big brands, a search campaign can often be about visibility and brand reinforcement. If you have to bring paid campaigns down because of click fraud, your whole strategy is shot. Being aware...

Continue reading "The Scourge of Click Fraud - Part III" »

The Scourge of Click Fraud - Part II

Posted by tim on January 19, 2005 at 04:01 PM

With all the recent attention, and since I promised earlier, I thought it was a good time to get into some of the different types of click fraud that appear on PPC campaigns. Spikes One of the most primitive and obvious methods show up as huge spikes in traffic. As long as a campaign is managed in a consistent manner, it will likely develop some predictable patterns. You'll get an idea of how much traffic you've got coming and the trick then is to improve conversions. With a spike, you'll see a huge surge in traffic, generally on a single...

Continue reading "The Scourge of Click Fraud - Part II" »

The Scourge of Click Fraud!

Posted by tim on January 19, 2005 at 08:58 AM

Click fraud has been, and continues to be, an extremely hot topic for search marketing and Internet advertising. Recently, Pete Lerma did an article on the subject of click fraud for ClickZ. Lerma is a principal at Click Here (the Interactive Marketing division of Richard Group). I think what stands out most is the shroud of mystery and misunderstanding that hangs over click fraud. Mainstream press, namely Newsweek, have also started to talk about click fraud. This is obviously garnering a lot of attention and it should. I'm not about to dismiss click fraud. It's a serious issue. We've seen...

Continue reading "The Scourge of Click Fraud!" »