Click Fraud: A double threat

How can advertisers actually begin to help networks stamp out the problems of click fraud?

In recent months click fraud has taken an insidious turn, expanding from a marketer's nightmare to one that threatens anyone unlucky enough to click on the wrong search ad or land on a compromised web page. Fraudsters now embed malicious programs right into landing pages, banners and PPC ads delivered via ad networks like Google and Yahoo! and even hijack entire brands through 'redirects', which spoof legitimate pages but are full of malicious content. Brands victimised by these attacks suffer immediate financial damage to their campaigns, loss of customers and, worse yet, damage to their hard-earned reputations as a result.

As if that wasn't enough, advertisers are still vexed by a near total lack of visibility into the actual performance of their PPC campaigns. None of the major ad networks release the necessary information to help advertisers tweak their campaigns for the best returns, and more often than not click fraud becomes a 'write off'. And there is zero transparency and accountability in regard to the performance of affiliate networks -- so advertisers just do not know where (or even if) their ads are being shown. Of course, many don't care so long as they see a return, but those worried about brand image wouldn't want their ads to appear on pages with questionable content, and even fewer advertisers want to be associated with adware, spyware and popups. This double threat -- brand equity lost to the ravages of malware and a complete lack of campaign accountability -- still make PPC campaigns risky business for brand marketers.

But what if advertisers could see into their clickstreams to filter out malicious code that might otherwise float unnoticed within text ads? And imagine if the networks provided a full PPC performance disclosure statistics page? This might take the shape of an advertising 'dashboard' that detailed the exact amount of clicks the advertiser received -- say 100, of which 20 were questionable. The dashboard would let the advertiser know it was only being charged for 80 clicks. This would show a good-faith effort on behalf of the ad network in combating the click fraud problem. This isn't to say the networks aren't trying to crush fraud now, but without admitting they even have a problem, it's hard for them to say that they have a solution.

If ad networks like Yahoo! and Google continue to keep their most profitable customers in the dark, they'll risk losing ads from the affiliate networks, and high-paying clients will only advertise on search where there is less incentive for fraud. That would significantly impact the major advertising network platforms and threaten the promise of the online channel, hurting everyone within the PPC ecosystem -- advertisers, ad networks, affiliates and publishers.

This latter group is especially vulnerable. As advertisers begin to scale back their Google and Yahoo! campaigns from affiliate networks, publishers who rely on Google and Yahoo! will see a drop in well targeted, high paying ads. Fewer ads lead to lower per-click prices and less relevantly targeted ads. And, just as advertisers lose money, publishers find themselves no longer able to command premium prices for their inventory. Unlike advertisers who can pull, edit and otherwise control their ads, publishers suffer as a whole.

So what can brands and ad networks do about click fraud to keep themselves and their customers safe?

1. A good first step is to start taking some responsibility for campaigns. Too often marketers rely on their agencies to handle the PPC campaign from start to finish, which includes the responsibility to the brand safe from click fraud. This is lazy and more than potentially harmful to the brand. Although most agencies have their clients' best interests in mind, they're primarily interested in generating traffic. But, the quality of that traffic isn't always top-notch. So instead of waiting until an advertising campaign is over and the budget is spent, marketers need to be proactive and address invalid (and potentially unsafe) traffic while a campaign is in progress to improve campaign performance. Pay attention to abnormal behaviour, including traffic generated from spyware, malware, hit bots and other 'black hat' sources.

2. Advertisers need to have third-party auditing tools at hand to make sure that the PPC campaign provides accountability and increases return on ad spend while ensuring the health of the brand's image. Ad networks benefit from this same remedy by being able to ensure their advertisers only the highest quality clickstreams, with no malware associated with the network -- keeping the customers' customers safe, as it were.

3. Education! Educate yourselves on the latest cyber attacks and issues, and how to thwart them, by reviewing sites like About Click Fraud.

As long as there remains a financial incentive for people to commit fraud, the click fraud problem will not fully disappear. But full disclosure by ad networks can alleviate advertiser and publisher angst and allow others help the major ad networks combat the quickly escalating fraud problem. How much data should the advertising networks provide without disclosing trade secrets? That's an important question, but staying quiet and denying the click fraud problem exists may soon lead to not having much performance data at all to hide.

By giving advertisers more visibility into their campaigns, advertisers will be more than happy to help the networks stamp out fraud. But as it stands right now, everyone is still operating in the dark.


Michael Caruso - The CEO of ClickFacts shares his views