With Profits Like These, Most Advertisers Don't Seem Worried About Clickfraud

Studies

from the so-they-say dept

Last year, a bunch of advertisers sued Google, claiming that the company didn’t take the issue of clickfraud seriously enough — costing them money. Of course, if clickfraud was really that big a problem, then you would think they’d start taking their business elsewhere. Earlier this year, Google settled the lawsuit, tossing some pocket change to the complaining advertisers. Not surprisingly, many felt it wasn’t enough and sued to block the settlement. However, as part of the deal, an independent study was commissioned to look into the issue — and that study has now said Google is doing a pretty good job in controlling clickfraud. This, obviously, won’t make the advertisers happy — but it seems reasonable. Still, what may be most interesting is that this is the first time that we can remember that Google actually opened up at all to an outside party about how they handle the issue. Google likes to claim that it needs to remain secretive to protect its methods — but that’s the traditional “security by obscurity” method that you’d think the folks at Google knew better than to rely on. On the other side of the fence, it’s important for Google to keep the trust of its advertisers. Obviously, this report helps somewhat, but it only came out because it was forced on the company. You would think they would have been a lot more proactive in offering up an independent analysis that advertisers’ dollars were being put to good use. However, perhaps when your revenue and profits just keep going up, it just doesn’t matter — which also suggests that plenty of advertisers don’t seem to be all that worried about clickfraud.