Google Sues Click Inflators

Rollie Hawk writes "As is the case with any pay-per-click (PPC) advertising service, Google AdSense is vulnerable to click inflation, where the per-click values of ads go down thanks to excessive clicking. What is different this time is that it is not greedy webmasters clicking ads on their own site but rather the advertisers themselves. In a lawsuit filed last year, Google alleges that Auctions Expert used hired hands and automation to generate high numbers of ad clicks that resulted in $50,000 in revenues. This was done with two goals in mind: forcing wasted advertising expenses on competitors and inflating their own click values, lowering advertising costs. Industry insiders claim that Google AdSense and other PPC advertising providers are undermanned and therefore don't catch many of the estimated 20% fraudulent clicks. It certainly seems that some heuristic software could help reign-in some of these activities, yet Google seems to do a large amount of this work by hand. Often criticized for its policies of non-disclosure for many of its online services, Google claims the secrecy is justified in the case of not giving advertisers details on fraudulent clicking. They say the last thing they want to do is provide a 'road map' to would-be frauders."

Comments

Tracking purchases?

[Eunuch]

How hard is it to track purchases that are due to a particular click? That would solve the problem in a hurry. Wouldn't work for more "image" type advertising, but it would be an interesting challenge for a purchasing framework.

Re:Tracking purchases?

[Mistlefoot]

That I don't purchase something means little.

I can not EVER remember purchasing ANYTHING the first time I have visited a site. It almost always requires a 2nd or 3rd visit. The internet allow me to search for better prices or better products. That does not mean that I have never purchased something from a website that I found through an ad online....to the contrary. I have purchased much this way.

It would not be fair to google for an advertiser to not be paid for getting me to a website via a google ad from work that led to me purchasing that item when I got home. I suspect that the majority of legitamite click throughs do not result in a purchase with the initial visit. Google (or any other ad provider) has done it's job properly though and should be rewarded.

Re:Tracking purchases?

[ewg]

Also, many people research products on the web site and then pick up the phone to place the order. The web site supported the sale, but that fact can't be tracked to any individual web session.

Re:Tracking purchases?

[atomic_toaster]

The thing is, they're not charging for how effective the ad is. They're charging for how effective its placement is, like how Superbowl ads cost a frigging fortune in comparison to something that runs on the local cable channel. It's very much as if Google was a huge shopping mall, and the advertisements are the signs and the ads in the windows of the stores. When you pay rent to the landlord to have your store in a mall, you pay more for the same square footage dependant on the location of the mall, the store's location in the mall, the popularity of the mall, etc. -- basically all of the things that the mall itself can provide that makes it more likely that people will come into your store. But it's not the landlord's responsibility to get the people actually into your store (that's your ads, signage, and window displays), or to buy anything in your store (that's based on your products and prices). PPC is just a way of tracking if the "mall" is actually drawing people to your "store". This makes Google tracking the click-to-purchase ratio pretty useless. Now, if the site itself is tracking the traffic-to-purchase ratio, that's a different matter entirely.

Re:Tracking purchases?

[Evro]

Most retailers can track you across visits. Tracking your click-through history (which Google ads you've clicked on before making a purchase) is incredibly valuable information to the retailer. Just because you didn't buy something today doesn't mean your click wasn't tracked and can't be linked back to that click.

Re:Tracking purchases?

[mpcooke3]

This doesn't really matter. For ad networks using CPA (cost-per-acquisition) rather than CPC the tracking is done using cookies which will record a sign up or purchase even on repeat visits.

Although CPA based advertising is a lot less prone to fraud there are issues of which the biggest is in deploying pixels to do tracking on all sign up/purchase pages there are also more fixable issues with double counting (crediting to more than one ad network). CPA may be vulnerable to publisher fraud of course though this is usually less of an issue as you have a contractual relationship with them.

CPC click fraud was a problem long before google starting selling space on a CPC basis. I believe commission junction used to have a whole fraud detection team (they may still do).

Security through obscurity?

[TripMaster Monkey]

From the article:

Stricchiola harshly criticizes Google, saying the firm typically will not divulge much information to advertisers about the nature or scope of click fraud on their Web sites. Google defends the practice, saying it does not want to provide a road map for those with bad intentions.

<sarcasm>
Security through obscurity...always a sound threat-management strategy.
</sarcasm>

Seriously, what exactly does Google hope to accomplish by trying to keep a lid on this? News flash, Google: the 'road map' is already out there, and being used to the tune of approximately 20% of all clicks on ads (stat from TFA). The secret is out...no one can gain by covering up the problem...no one, that is, but the people perpetrating the click fraud.

Google better do an about-face on this issue, and fast, before it winds up biting them on the ass even more than it has already.

Re:Security through obscurity?

[HitByASquirrel]

Anybody else notice the rapid crapification of Google since the IPO? There's a difference between "crapification" and "legitimization."

Google needs to protect themselves and their legitimate clients. Why would a company allow practices that were essentially stealing money from them, and for that matter, why would someone invest in a company that allowed people to do such things?

Re:Security through obscurity?

[Anonymous Coward]

You know, "No security through obscurity!" is an aphorism, not a law of thermodynamics. It's not like disclosing their practices is going to accomplish anything (no, they're not waiting for your 1337ness to ride in and save them) and the fact that there's an existing problem isn't proof that things can't get any worse.

Sorry, "No security through obscurity!" is just something Slashbots repeat to sound smart...

Re:Security through obscurity?

[Florian Weimer]

The secret is out...no one can gain by covering up the problem...no one, that is, but the people perpetrating the click fraud.

Not true. If you've got a solution for click fraud, you should keep it to yourself because it enables you to give better service to your customers, especially better than the competition who doesn't know of your discovery.

Have a look at spam filter heuristics for some inspiration. The most effective ones are not widely published, and thus not widely used. I don't think this is a coincidence.

Security through obscurity doesn't work in cryptography. A competitive edge through trade secrets is not completely unheard of. In the end economics win, and not cryptography.

Re:Security through obscurity?

[ajs]

"Sorry, "No security through obscurity!" is just something Slashbots repeat to sound smart..."

What's more, it's often dead wrong.

"Security through obscurity is no security at all" is often the mantra, and yet when pressed, you have to admit that having a password; having some systems be honeypots that feed DNSBLs; and many other valid security approaches are STO *and* are valid additions to your security framework.

The key to good security is layering. Put out your STO layer, and then add in your logical security layer, followed by your physical security layer, followed by your auditing layer. This is how you build good security.

At every point in your security model, you should have a sense that there's some ablative layer that can be compromised without a full failure of security. What's more, you should be auditing that intrusion to discover the failure, and ideally reacting to that information (e.g. by modifying firewall rules to stop the intruder).

Getting back to our friends... Google is showing you the first layer of their security approach: don't tell them what our security model is. Now, if that's their whole model, then they're screwed, but it seems reasonable to assume that it's not (else, why bother not telling you?)

Re:Security through obscurity?

[mr.newt]

I think you have totally misunderstood the concept of security through obscurity. It's a matter of degree. If you were being very literal, *all* security is security through obscurity. After all, encryption only works because the encryption key is obscure (in that case, only two people should know it). However, that term applies not to security in general, but security that is had by simply failing to disclose vulnerabilities that are easily discoverable anyway. Generally what is known as security through obscurity is only effective in keeping out very casual users of the system in question, and is not a valid reason for failing to disclose something relevant such as (in this case) type and extent of click fraud to paying advertisers.

Pay to Surf Fraud

[disc-chord]

During the early days of the "Pay 2 Surf" fad, some friends of mine in college devised some of the original scams (including bots that have led Yahoo and others to include image verification to determine if a real person is making an account). They were monumentally succesful, one claimed he paid for nearly a whole year's worth of tuition from scamming these guys.

None of them ever had the slightest bit of legal woes as a result of it, and none of them even got complaints from the companies. As far as the companies organizing Pay 2 Surf programs were concerned the more the merrier as it meant more ad revenue for them.

I wonder why Google has decided, against their own interests, to go after fraudsters like this.

Re:Pay to Surf Fraud

[millwall]

I wonder why Google has decided, against their own interests, to go after fraudsters like this.

I think it's a long term strategy from Google. If they would embrace the revenue generated by the scammers, the real and legitimate advertisers would get less out of their ads, and in the end stop using Google for marketing.

Re:Pay to Surf Fraud

[Anonymous Luddite]

>> I wonder why Google has decided, against their own interests, to go after fraudsters like this

They are doing it precisely because it is in their best interests to do so. Advertiser's have many places to spend their budget. A lack of confidence in the adwords program would drive those dollars elsewhere.

Re:Pay to Surf Fraud

[Spudley]

And he never thought to just turn off his screensaver?

Good deal.

[Future Man 3000]

Greed is ruining the Internet (pop-ups, e-mail spam, blog spam, P2P, ungrounded cease-and-desists, spyware/adware, "phone-home" software) and it's about time to defend one of the last remaining quality services of the Internet: search engines.

Google got to the top of the game by providing an excellent service efficiently. But like anything else, people have no problems ruining it to make a little more money.

Re:Good deal.

[PktLoss]

While google may not be doing the math. I (and other advertisers) most certainly do. I'm paying X for a click, %0.5 of clicks result in a sale, with a profit of X. If cost per click > profit per sale * percentage of sales, I stop buying.

Fraudlent clicks lower the percentage of clicks that result in sales. So the value of a click decreases, along with Google's margin on the transaction.

It's in their own best interest in the long run to combat this sort of thing.

Re:Good deal.

[88NoSoup4U88]

Greed is ruining the Internet

Wait. And it's not ruining (part of) our daily real life ?

I don't understand the issue

[neurosis101]

Google sets up a way of doing advertising business with them. You sign a contract that most likely links your rate with your clicks, provided they aren't fraudulent. Now somebody got caught and they're gonna get sued. What's the problem? Its not like its a right to have an advertisement on their site. Google can tell you to shove it if they want. Reading the summary makes me think the issue is that Google isn't disclosing how they caught this advertiser because its done by hand. Again, why should Google disclose more than necessary to prove to the court in their case? I'm not seeing the issue.

Re:I don't understand the issue

[TedTschopp]

Here is one issue. We used Google ads for a while until they shut us off. Turned out that someone else (not those of us running the site) had set up a bot and had been clicking away at the links.

We have no idea if this was to 'help' us or to hurt us. But the problem remains. Want to screw someone over who has uses Googles Adwords on the site. You know how. Want to screw someone over who is advertising on Google. Now you know how.

The assumption that is being made by google is that there is a relationship between the clicking on an add and the recievership of money. In our case there might have been a relationship, but it was done without our knowledge. Now we can't use any of Google's Ads.

The issue is a bit harder than it orignally seems.

Ted

Perfect opportunity

[stecoop]

This sounds like a good outsourcing candidate. I would hate to click all day but I imainge someone overseas wouldn't mind making a buck doing it and best yet I bet that it wouldn't be illegal there nor even any recourse that a company could seek.

Good for Them

[doublem]

Google ads don't annoy me. Fraud hurts their business model, and as a result may cause them to go away.

At which point we'll be left with pop-overs, pop-unders, flash and every other annoying thing marketing slime can come up with.

Click Fraud hurts my web browsing experience.

The job is bad enough...

[TheWart]

Can you imagine having the job of clicking on your companies' ads all day?

"Yes, I am up to 100 clicks a minute, time for a bonus!"

Umm, that's not what the article says...

[MadAnthony02]

The slashdot blurb gives the impression that Auctions Expert was clicking on other ads to drive up competitors advertising costs. But while that is mentioned in the article by another guy, what Auctions Experts was doing was standard "put google ads on our page, and keep clicking the links so we get paid"

From the article:

Auctions Expert allegedly recruited as many as 50 people to click on online advertising, generating about $50,000 in ad revenue. The self-clicking was "worthless to advertisers, but generated significant and unjust revenue for defendants," the Google lawsuit said. Auctions Expert, Google claims, appeared to be created solely to profit from manipulating the Internet ad process

Sample mail form Google

[Virtual Karma]

Hello YourName,

We've noticed that you're displaying AdWords ads on a site
(YourSiteURL) that violates our program policies.

Our program specialists regularly review AdSense websites for various
criteria, including, but not limited to, site content, clear navigation,
and the site's potential value to the AdSense program and the user
experience.

We've found that many of the ads that would appear on your site would not
be relevant to your site's content. Because these ads wouldn't provide a
valuable experience for your site's users or our advertisers, we believe
AdSense isn't currently appropriate for the website listed above. As a
result, we've disabled this URL.

Google has certain policies in place that we believe will help ensure the
effectiveness of AdWords ads for our publishers as well as our
advertisers. We believe strongly in freedom of expression and therefore
offer broad access to content across the web without censoring results. At
the same time, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when
it comes to the ads we display in our AdWords program and the sites on
which we choose to display them in our AdSense program, as noted in our
respective terms and conditions.

Please feel to reply to this email with any questions. If you manage or
own another site on which you'd like to display AdWords ads, you may reply
to this email and include the URL in the message. We'll be happy to review
this site and consider it for Google AdSense. If the new site complies
with our program policies, we'll approve your application and allow you to
serve ads on that specific site.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

The Google Team

pfft

[Arctic Dragon]

"In a lawsuit filed last year, Google alleges that Auctions Expert used hired hands and automation to generate high numbers of ad clicks that resulted in $50,000 in revenues."

A real con artist would use 1000 monkeys with 1000 typewriters instead of hiring people (professional ad clickers?). More effective that way.

Click Fraud is a completely bogus non-issue

[Anonymous Coward]

Its the "pay-per-click" method which is broken,
because its too simplistic. The advertisers and
search engines need to come up with better
technology to make sure that payment only follows
purchases.

Clicking your mouse on a search engine results
page, as many times as you want, should be
considered a First Amendment protected form of
Freedom of Expression. Clicking your mouse on your
stock broker's BUY button, for instance, is
obviously quite different, because you and the
broker have a contract where your clicks are
treated as orders.

But there is no contract between the users of a
search engine and the search engine's advertisers.
If companies want to transfer money between
themselves based on those clicks, they had better
think long and hard about the conditions where
that actually makes sense.

low value webpages

[PW2]

Another problem I've noticed is that some people post webpages that contain nothing more than a few keywords that somehow get highly ranked in Google searches. These low value webpages must be making money because I've seen more than a few of them. I'll check someday to see if Adsense has a place to report abuse like that.

Re:low value webpages

[Nos.]

Some of these are the result of expiring domains that have been snapped up. For a couple of days I kept an eye on expiring .ca and .com domains and ran them through a little google PR checker. I watched one .ca domain with an average PR of just below 6. .ca domains that have expired are released within a 15 minute window. I was doing a whois on the domain about twice every second. I never saw the status become available. It went directly from to be released, to registered.

There is a whole industry out there which revolves around snapping up expired domains with high PR. They have pages up within minutes of registering that are filled with nothing but ads, and maybe a few keywords.

Use Bounty Hunters to Suppress Click Fraud

[rewinn]

The expense of detecting and suing over click-fraud could be greatly reduced by adding terms such as this to the ad contract:

1. The advertizer agrees not to [define prohibited conduct here]

2. Google may offer a bounty for truthful testimony by any person hired by advertizer to perform [prohibited conduct], and advertizer agrees to permit such truthful testimony on the subject of [prohibited conduct] notwithstanding any other agreement with any party.

Drones paid sub-minimum-wage for click-fraud would jump at a reasonable bounty, especially if advertizer has already agreed to allow it.

Oh, wow!

[James A. Y. Joyce]

You mean Google doesn't exist solely to satisfy Internet users?! Shurely shome mishtake!

Come on, people. Just because something's on the Internet doesn't mean that defrauding cash from a company is magically illegal. Simply because you're physically removed from Google's computers doesn't mean you can't be busted for scamming them out of $$$.

Google AdSense Account Status

[Skudd]

Hello Tim Garrison,

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on
the ads on your web pages.

As a reminder, any method of generating invalid clicks is strictly
prohibited. Invalid clicks include but are not limited to any clicks
that are generated through the use of robots, automated clicking tools,
manual clicks by a publisher on the publisher's own web pages, or a
publisher encouraging others to click on his ads.

Publishers may not provide incentives of any kind to encourage or
require users to click on the ads, due to the potential for inflation
of advertiser costs. If we find your account to be in violation again,
action may be taken against your account and payment may be withheld.
Please be sure to review and remain in compliance with our Terms and
Conditions and program policies:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?h l= en_US
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl= en_US

Sincerely,

The Google Team


I'm one of the little guys, too. I have only ever clicked my own ads maybe twice. I never had more than 1 click per day, so they can't really bitch. What's worse, they refused to prove to me that there were actually invalid clicks. My solution: I removed the ads from all my sites and replaced them with "Get Firefox" ads.

Re:Google AdSense Account Status

[The Bungi]

I removed the ads from all my sites and replaced them with "Get Firefox" ads.

Whoa, that'll show them.

Fraud is Illegal

[HannethCom]

I don't see why people are bashing Google over this. They are trying to protect their company for illegal activities.

I can also understand why this is a human process instead of an automated one. People always find ways around programs meant to detect unethical behavior. Just look at how often junk mail filter technology has to be changed. With people looking over the data, they can see things that you wouldn't think of writing software to look for.

As for not disclosing their process, DUH! Sure people are getting past their checks, but they don't want to encourage people to try by telling them how they check for cheaters.

Advertising effectiveness

[erroneus]

I just happen to (presently) work at a company where advertising is the primary source of revenue. It would seem to me that they should attempt to follow a more simple model for advertisment without all the unreliable and exploitable complications of counting clicks.

Radio, TV and print ads are only generally predictable when it comes to exposure and public response are concerned. But with generalities, a "value" for the ad placement could be assessed. Sell based on those things. Now a buyer of advertisment needs to feel like he has value in his purchase right? That's why Radio and TV have ratings and print advertisers have circulation numbers. So, at present, no one has devised a web site traffic authority(?) that will independantly serve as a third-party hit counter that will provide "ratings" to people interested in buying advertisment at any particular web site. So how would such a system be devised? You decide, but I think it would be good in that user feedback could shape the advertising on the internet in the future -- people complaining about spam and popups will be heard and an affect could be had! How about that... So who's gonna do it? Not me... I'm too busy sleeping.

Yeah, I got slammed by this...

[writermike]

I am a one-person PC repair shop and I used Google Adwords for my business last year. I targeted well, thanks to their help, and had AMAZING returns. In the first three months, I spent ~$70 and made well over $1000.00. I was determined to stick with it.

Then, suddenly, my per-month charges from Google went up. First it was $50, then $100, up to $300.00 per month. All this time, I had set on the same keywords, using the same targeting that I had been using. I pulled back a little and the numbers CONTINUED to climb.

I wrote Google, hoping they would be as helpful as they were when I first set this up. (They hand-held my creating the first ads.) No response. I just bailed.

But is it really illegal?

[LWATCDR]

I mean when does it become fraud?
If it is a program not a person click the link is it fraud?
If I wrote a spider that crawled every link on a page and it hit a page with Ad Sense links is it fraud?

Do I have to be a potential customer?
If I find an Ad Sense link to a competitors site and I click on it am I committing fraud?
What if I just want to see what the heck the ad is for but have no intention of buying it?

When does it become fraud?
And how can following a link be illegal?