Googles Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

Home
>
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
>
Googles Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

Googles Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

The fairy tale existance of Google is starting to experience shockwaves.

So, what's the source of these shockwaves? Click fraud. As my readers know, I've written several articles on the subject of click fraud, suggesting that since it's the market leader, Google should take a more proactive approach with the problem of click fraud.

Until now, Google has been mostly quiet about the subject, issuing this single statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission:

"We are exposed to the risk of fraudulent clicks on our ads. We have regularly paid refunds related to fraudulent clicks and expect to do so in the future. If we are unable to stop this fraudulent activity, these refunds may increase. If we find new evidence of past fraudulent clicks, we may have to issue refunds retroactively of amounts previously paid to our Google Network members."

So, why isn't Google doing more about click fraud? In one of my articles, I theorized that with the amount of money involved, it's actually more cost effective for Google to issue an occasional refund to its advertisers, than to develop technology to eliminate click fraud.

That theory was echoed in a recent article, in which the author wrote:

"Google's primary defense against click fraud has been to refund advertisers their money if they complain and Google sees evidence that fraudulent clicks have occured. The problem with this is that the burden of proof is on the advertiser ... and Google knows that most advertisers will not take the time to argue. Therefore, Google has a financial incentive not to deal with click fraud on their own. It not only costs them to deal with the problem but if they do find a solution to stopping click fraud ... it will cost Google much more when they don't get paid for 20 percent or more of their clicks."

However, all of that may be about to change. At an investor conference last Wednesday, Google CFO George Reyes stated:

"I think something has to be done about this really, really quickly, because I think, potentially, it threatens our business model."

My question is this: What took Google so long to come to that realization? It's not like click fraud just magically appeared yesterday. The media has been reporting on the problem for at least the last 3 years.

Smug in its ivory tower, did Google think the problem was just going to go away by itself? Or was it waiting for Overture or one of the smaller pay-per-click companies to solve the problem, so it wouldn't have to deal with it?

These are troubling questions, to say the least. Even more troubling is Google's passive approach to a serious problem, which in my opinion has been reprehensible.

It should be interesting to see what Google's next move is. Google CFO George Reyes statement notwithstanding, I'll believe Google is serious about eliminating click fraud, when I finally see it!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net.

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

In The News:

An Introduction To Paid Search Conversion Tracking
Search Engine Land (blog)
Or, if a user is searching on a topic and happen to be drawn to your site, only to buy later, that's a good use of PPC advertising as well. ...

PR-inside.com (press release)
Where Search Meets Social: Integrating Social Media into Organic and Paid ...
B2C Marketing Insider (blog)
Similarly, social media can be utilized to explore special offers to be incorporated into PPC text ads and landing pages. For example, research could ...
What is search engine marketing?Helium
Internet Marketing for the IP SavvyTelecom Reseller (press release)
PromotionWorld Names Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing the Number One SEO ...PR Web (press release)

all 46 news articles »

Impact Media (blog)
Comparing Google Adsense and Google Adwords
Helium
Such advertising is called Pay Per Click, or PPC. Advertising prices are based on the value of the keywords used in a campaign. ...
PPC Management Software Provider Acquisio Joins Google Preferred AdWords API ...PR Web (press release)
Web Marketing Workshop in Sydney Achieves Google AdWords Certified Partner StatusThe Open Press (press release)

all 19 news articles »

Impact Media (blog)
Affordable Seo Company UK
Business Urls (blog)
Wе аrе proficient іn many forms οf online marketing аnԁ specialize іn Affordable Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay Per Click advertising (PPC), ...
SMX East Super Early Bird Rates Expire Tomorrow July 30 – Register Now!Search Engine Land (blog)

all 32 news articles »

Daydreaming About Paid Search: How About Airtight Ad Groups?
Search Engine Land (blog)
As I wrote in Rich Stokes' new book, “Ultimate Guide to Pay Per Click Advertising” you can use negative keywords both to keep search queries from matching ...

TechShout! (blog)
Bing algorithm tests go live in Yahoo! Search
Vertical Leap News (press release)
Search engine optimisation and PPC advertising for Bing will, for the first time, start to have an effect on Yahoo!'s SERPs as the 'Search Alliance' ...
Blueglass LA Session: Marketing Strategy: Don't forget searchSearch Engine Journal

all 143 news articles »

Tricks on how to cash in on Internet marketing quickly
Helium
The website was using PPC (Pay Per click) advertising. By lousy content, he meant content that was written from the search engine spiders only. ...

PR Web (press release)
PPC Training - New Customized AdWords Training Courses
PR Web (press release)
How, through ppc advertising, they can reach, engage with, and convert their target markets. "They will learn how to develop the PPC strategy that's just ...
Search Marketing Goes Real-Time with UK Start-upPR Web (press release)

all 5 news articles »

Online Social Media (blog)
Social Media Marketing Integration Strategies: SEO and PPC
Online Social Media (blog)
... what Kent Lewis is saying on b2cmarketinginsider.com, you need to understand that SEO is Search Engine Optimisation, PPC is pay per click advertising, ...

The PEC Review: Facebook Pay-Per-Click Ads
Practical Ecommerce
This is very good news for ecommerce marketers, since Facebook has an easy-to-use and targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertising service that can place ads in ...

Google News

Googles Wonderland: Trouble In Paradise?

Pay-Per-Click Advertising Pay-Per-Click Advertising