July 26, 2006

In a bold effort to significantly reduce click fraud issues, Google will be making available to its advertisers the average number of invalid clicks on their ads.

With the changes Google did to its AdWords program yesterday, its advertisers will be able to examine the number of invalid clicks Google found on its system.

Also, advertisers will be able to see what percentage that total represents when compared to the overall clicks registered, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google.

Click fraud is detected when site publishers click on their own ads in an effort to boost their revenue, or when companies click on competitors' ads to eat away at their advertising budgets.

Invalid clicks include (but are not limited to) accidental or inadvertent double clicks on an ad, according to Ghosemajumder.

"Advertisers asked us for more transparency on this issue," he said. "Until now, advertisers didn't have a great deal of data to compare from their own accounts in order to be able to understand what Google is doing for them."

Without accurate click fraud numbers from Google, advertisers have had to rely on various estimates from third-party software that provide basic services to battle click fraud, and that Google accuses of inflating numbers to drive additional business.

Certain industry reports say that fraudulent clicks range from about 14 percent on the low-scale to as high as 20 percent or more of total clicks.

"Our goal is to provide that transparency so advertisers who previously may have been unnerved or concerned about these wildly exaggerated figures will be able to see now what Google is doing to protect them," Ghosemajumder said.

Google detects and filters out the "vast majority" of invalid clicks, he said, declining to give any general figures on invalid clicks.

Under the new system, AdWords customers will be able to see data on invalid clicks on a daily basis or beyond, going back to the beginning of the year, he said.

Google has had to limit the data it provides to prevent fraudsters from reverse engineering its systems and methods of operation, according to Ghosemajumder.

A report submitted in a court case last week concluded that Google's anti-click fraud efforts are reasonable. The report was requested as part of a settlement reached between Web site Lane's Gifts and Google.

In a suit last year, Lane's Gifts sued Google claiming the search giant charged advertisers for fraudulent clicks.

Other advertisers are also challenging the settlement in court, arguing that the amount is inadequate compensation.

In a separate click fraud lawsuit, a federal judge approved a $5 million settlement Yahoo reached with Checkmate Strategic Group.

Source: C-Net News