goog new tools to fight click fraud

[dnalias]

Google Launching Tools to Fight Click Fraud

good read.

it would be interesting to see some comments about this

[PeterMan]

Thus, starting in March, Google plans to allow its advertisers to "blacklist" certain IP addresses for whatever reason, such as suspicion of click fraud or simply because their clicks never lead to a sale, he said.

"IP filtering is going to allow advertisers to say: 'If I believe a given IP address isn't producing productive traffic for me, then I don't want to ever show my ads to that IP address,'" Ghosemajumder said.

This is going to cost a lot of people a lot of money... think about popular sites that have a membership, like dnforum for example... If members here click on the ads to "help out" the owners/members but never "buy" anything then the advertisers could block a lot of ip addresses and a lot of those clicks could go uncounted...

[dnalias]

If members here click on the ads to "help out" the owners/members but never "buy" anything then the advertisers could block a lot of ip addresses and a lot of those clicks could go uncounted...

the clicking on ads to "help out" does not define an efficient system. Think about the advertiser, if you were the advertiser you would want to block those ip’s

[PeterMan]

the clicking on ads to "help out" does not define an efficient system. Think about the advertiser, if you were the advertiser you would want to block those ip’s

That is true, I agree... I was not trying to say one way or the other if I feel that it is right or wrong... it is l little bit of a gray area imo... nevertheless, publishers will get paid less and won't be happy and if the publisher feels that the clicks are legit how can they make their case?

[Focus]

everything is all moving to an eventual CPA based advertising system..just like it did with the opt-in email market back when I was involved years ago..

[dnalias]

That is true, I agree... I was not trying to say one way or the other if I feel that it is right or wrong... it is l little bit of a gray area imo... nevertheless, publishers will get paid less and won't be happy and if the publisher feels that the clicks are legit how can they make their case?

making a case is going to be difficult.

but, if this makes the system more efficient then it should drive up cost per click correct? if true then the publisher will eventually make the same if not more money. further this might have a positive psychological impact for advertisers. if they feel the PPC system is less prone to fraud then maybe more advertisers will join? The psychological aspect is hard to measure, but there still are PPC skeptics out there.

[Duckinla]

If one IP address is clicking on the same ads over and over, that would seem to be pretty strong indication of click fraud. Google will probably have to go further and look for IP addresses that are clicking on way too many ads, not just the same ad. This seems like a baby step to me, I'm surprised this is a new idea.

[dnalias]

This seems like a baby step to me, I'm surprised this is a new idea.

i agree