Pace Lattin produced a great article about advertising fraud over at ClickZ last week. It details how ad exchanges will go to any length to grow their inventory and undercut competitors.
To this I reply, why even bother advertise on any network outside of Google or Yahoo/Bing? Is your business so big that it has exhausted all its inventory possibilities on these networks? Hardly!
Okay, so you can still branch out a little bit… Hulu for instance, is fine… and I’m sure there are some media companies such as AOL and NBC that you can be okay with… but beyond these players, just stay away. The more us advertisers come together and stop buying on these crappy networks, the shorter the life span these networks will experience. So, in the end, just say NO!
2 responses to “Click Fraud in Display Networks”
Thanks for the mention.
How much fraud happens on Google? A recent report of theirs claimed as much as 20-30%?
According to the account managers I work with at Google, “very little”. They continuously reassure me that their engines detect fraud and do not charge advertisers for it… And you do see adjustments made all the time. This tells me that (a) fraud occurs with a high frequency and (b) they are good at catching it. However, I have drawn the conclusion that they may not catch all of it. So, I have to ask myself, “am I happy with the metrics my campaigns are currently attaining?” If so, then I suppose I can live with a little. Interestingly, I have had the same issue with MSN/Bing. So clearly no network is impervious, but I do believe the larger networks are more capable (tools, time, and know-how) of detecting the fraud than the smaller networks. And, it may be easier to dispute with the smaller networks, but they may also be more inclined to ignore fraud, since it contributes a higher percentage to their bottom line.
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