Yahoo Search Marketing's Unknown Distribution Partners

[Webdango]

For anyone engaged in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, click fraud is a big concern. Intentional click fraud is when a click occurs on your ad by a person, or an automated script or computer program simulating a person, for the purpose of generating an improper click charge. The person or company committing the fraud is doing so for the purpose of costing you money and has no intention of making a purchase.

There's another type of activity going on, that, while not click fraud in the traditional sense of the definition provided above, still hovers at the edge of legitimacy. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of sites showing YSM ads and, through a partnership arrangement with YSM, getting paid when your ad is clicked. If you think that's not a problem, read on.

Most PPC marketers know their PPC ad in YSM is automatically shown on Yahoo's distribution partner sites. Here's the 'official' list: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srch/srch_affnw.php. That doesn’t look so bad, does it?

But what about all the sites NOT on the list? Sites showing your ads that, when clicked, put money in the partner site's pocket, in Yahoo's pocket, and take it out of your pocket, all the while delivering a click that is unlikely to convert. What happens when these sites get crawled by search engine spiders and other robots?

I don't want to give these guys a link, but I'm sure you'll figure out the url: www[dot]recipes[dot]com

Upon arriving at the site, you might reasonably assume it's a directory or index of sites related to recipes and cooking. It claims to present 'comprehensive search friendly indexes'. Let's take a closer look...

A click on the 'Healthy Recipes' link in the top navigation bar returns a listing of links. At the top of the page in tiny text it reads: 'Sponsored Results: Healthy Recipes'. There's a 'more' link in the lower right. In the URL we see the key phrase 'healthy recipes' has been passed in.

Now do this: in another browser window, go to www[dot]overture[dot]com (YSM’s site). In the search box in the upper right, type in the phrase 'healthy recipes'. Now go back and forth between recipes[dot]com and the Overture search results. Notice anything?

All recipes[dot]com is doing is re-serving YSM paid listings. When a user arrives at recipes[dot]com and clicks on a link, recipes[dot]com gets a fee, YSM charges you the cost for the click, and you end up with a click that is less likely to convert to a sale or lead.

Let’s dig in a bit more. Here's the code for the destination of the first link:
redirect.php?term=healthy+recipes&host=www.rachael raymag.com&jump=http%3A%2F%2Fwww60.overture.com%2F d%2Fsr%2F%3Fxargs%3D15KPjg18BStpXyl%255FruNLbXU6HT kQZdwcH2o4JwVsw6WIAMrSkpBv4sMf7Yz%255FVITPMisFeRiK eL9KIVKfXl2KPKHUrMHgrdDOCLpfGnosJSdfrwG4IfkrEqsZmQ 6pNNSBwHZGe3cZq%252Dnu3ZItCCShcsge1L%255Fy2BpaQ%25 5FnYvujPIcFbiqmgcrohyBN88J66Mpl5%255FOLpoISLpdftCe kzDDfehBwqp9k%252DSiTSljLSKg4h4a%255FP60FBQM%252De 3AfY0MubH1nImRYeHrxNRfHzeU8fZj4RvjvXrpyotqICOPieNp oHUFS9n6Zjio%255Fgtc2riFgfDfP4duvzKnSr3QZXjhPU94dU N4WrW0MQeBcSgqvBNiUYWyU%255FmVpS6%255FAK%252DCEykn fFUD%252DZS5ONBG7lmRmWMzXjLBF%255FpLjBsKJKNi0Aygvr a2uFsxk50HzOGWIdFV6oyCuHPy%26yargs%3Dwww.rachaelra ymag.com

From this code we can see this link sends the clicker through Overture.

If you still have your Overture (YSM) window open with the 'healthy recipes' results still up, roll over the same link to see where it goes:
www23.overture.com/d/sr/?xargs=15KPjg189StpXyl%5FruNLbXU6HTkQZdwcH2o4JwVsw 6WIAMrSkpBv4sMf7Yz%5FVITPMisFeRiKeL9KIVKfXl2KPKHUr MHgrdDOCLpfGnosJSdfrwG4IfkrEqsZmQ6pNNSBwHZGe3cZq%2 Dnu3ZItCCShcsge1L%5Fy2BpaQ%5FnYvujPIcFbiqmgcrohyBN 88J66Mpl5%5FOLpoISLpdftCekzDDfehBwqp9k%2DSiTSljLSK g4h4a%5FP60FBQM%2De3AfY0MubH1nImRYeHrxNQobTaQ9fZi4 RblyH%5Fuu%5FtjICOPieNpoHQFS9n6Zjmpigxbr7iFgfLNctF ivDisOMWrHmerbEFyekx5RP7kbgqKbHdi7%5F%2DlY2VkQenx9 yK%2DHraYBCI5ZFoXqN60LoYLgXi7sUQQfhX8UNTauTkKLxVfk gyrvhW2zlswg%2DkhqPreDeFz&yargs=www.rachaelraymag. com

Except for the www23 prefix and the xargs variable (which is used to track the click), the link is the same. That means when someone clicks on the link at recipes[dot]com, rachaelraymag[dot]com gets charged.

Other considerations:
1. On the recipes[dot]com site, replace 'healthy+recipes' in the query string with any other search term, like 'tennis+rackets'. Now the links show sites for tennis rackets. Or from the homes page, do a search for any term. I guess recipes[dot]com isn't just a recipes site....

2. recipes[dot]com doesn't have a robots.txt file. It isn't providing any special instructions to spiders or bots crawling their site, such as banning them from crawling the links.

3. The links don't have a rel=nofollow. Search engine spiders will follow the links from recipes[dot]com through to Overture (YSM).

4. When recipes[dot]com gets crawled and search engine spiders or other bots follow the outbound links, Unless YSM is doing something on their end, the advertiser is getting charged.

Now go to Google and search for 'healthy recipes'. Scan the results around position five. recipes[dot]com is running AdWords ads to drive users to its site, where they will then click on YSM ads and make recipes[dot]com (and YSM) money.

In the lower right of the recipes[dot]com site is a link to the company that runs the site (digimedia). Clicking on that link takes you to the company page. Once there, click on the 'Portfolio' link. Now feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach if you use YSM as you see all the other sites this company runs that are doing the exact same thing as recipes[dot]com.

It gets worse. Go to www[dot]cheapcomforters[dot]com. Check out the links on the home page. Now go back to the Overture search and search for 'cheap comforters' Compare the results with the cheapcomforters site. Click on any of the links on cheapcomforters site and compare the resulting links with Overture search results for those terms.

Still feeling good about the money you pay to YSM? Maybe you should go to onlinecareerdirectory[dot]com. EVERY link on this page goes to a site the does nothing but list YSM paid ads. Here's another: onlineemploymentguide[dot]com. Explore here and you will find that the links either go directly to sites that show YSM paid listings or to sites that have other links that eventually put the user on a site that shows YSM paid listings.

In the strictest sense, is this click fraud? Hair-splitters out there will probably say no. But these sites are misrepresenting YSM paid search ads as directory and index listings. They aren't masking them from search engines. They are advertising through other PPC engines (and probably other ways) to get traffic.

Personally, I wouldn't want my paid ads to be shown on sites like these. Spider and bot clicks notwithstanding, I know from personal experience that clicks from such sites convert at a much lower rate than clicks from ads show as a result of an active search.

I ran PPC campaign for a client where just one of the sites I mentioned above was sending in excess of $30 worth of clicks a day, and those clicks converted at 1/20th the rate of clicks coming from the actual Yahoo search. When I addressed my concerns to YSM, sent server logs, and requested a refund (by that time in excess of $1,000), it was denied. When I asked them to stop serving ads to the site (and some others I had identified), they refused. I turned off the campaign in YSM. All told, for that campaign, I was paying almost $50 a day for clicks from sites like these.

I wonder why YSM doesn't list these sites on their Distribution Partner page.....

[ctabuk]

What a great post - well put together - I'm just so pleased that I've given up on all ppc - they promise so much and deliver so little, but some firms think nothing of $30K a month in PPC - I'd be up all night!!

[kjohnson5576]

Nice Work!!! I wonder why other media haven't picked up on this? It's kinda strange that people and business are so paranoid about being sued by money hungry lawyers looking to capitalize on an unfortunate accident; but here we have a perfect made to sue situation, and lawyers don't seem to circling the fraudulent shark smelling blood.

[Webdango]

ctabuk-
PPC can be very effective. PPC won't be going away, but as click costs continue to rise, it will take better and better management to make a campaign profitable.

I have run many Overture profitable campaigns. But I wonder how much MORE profitable they would have been if this sort of thing weren't going on.

I can almost always get a Google campaing to work.

The vast majority of profitable campaigns I was able to run in bottom tier providers such as Miva, Enhance, Search123, ePilot etc. where no risk or low risk lead gen. The very few ecommerce marketing campaigns I was able to take to profitability in bottom tier were all based on strong brand recognition and long tail keywords.

kjohnson-
As I mentioned in my original post, in the strictest sense this is not click fraud, so I don't think it would be legally actionable.

The only way to effect change, I think, would be for the advertisers to start walking out.

PPC providers could solve this issue themselves by allowing adverister total visibility on ALL distribution partners and letting you decide which ones you want your ad to appear on.

Most advertisers know content ads show up all over the place (and that's why most advertisers turn them off), but I don't think most advertisers know just how widely their actual PPC search ad is showing as well in sites that mimic a directory or index style and encourage multiple clicks.

[ctabuk]

Sure, but I'm there by SEO, so I get 50 hits a week for new Mortgages and it ain't cost me a penny - I firmly believe that if you create a niche market and that you are good at what you do, then do it. I used to run my own Overture/Google ppc and I'm making more money now than I ever did with PPC - If I have to advertise then 2 lines do it -Need a Right to Buy Mortgage? search CTAB Mortgage Desk anywhere. And that is not intended to 'show off' but if you do make that search, it brings up masses and masses of results, forum posts the lot, but I've been at this game a long time, I prefer modest people and I would rather see someone use your style of PPC management than many others I could name!!!
But I know exactly where you are coming from and like I said, it's a good post.

[Webdango]

Good points ctabuck-

I'll take top 10 organic placement over PPC anytime, but you know how impatient business owners can be.

IMO, it's getting harder and harder to rank well in organic. Seems as though more and more all I'm seeing - especially in ecommerce related goods - is Walmart, Target, eBay, and Amazon and aggregate sites like Shopping.com or BizRate. And trying to get a new site ranked in Google is all but impossible.

Ultimately, I try to fit any marketing plan to the needs/desires of a customer. For a new business, I recommend PPC out the gate, with eventual tapering off as organic clicks start to kick in (supposing the site has been built using good SEO practices).

[SemAdvance]

Webdango

Very good post. Good to see another investigative type entering into the marketing foray.

Here is the thing I think you miss and where you should look to take this....take away the fraud aspsect Yahoo didn't set up the sites you speak of and all of the Search Engines play turn their heads and cough at questionable tactics.

Here is what's missed - RachelRays accountants wont continue to pay for advertising if it's ROI is not up to snuff.

Since we can safely assume that RachelRay is making money in PPC... then we need to make RachelRay & her accountants smarter to Yahoo's and Googles and other SE methods.. and look to improve campaigns by weeding out undesired sites or keyword terms.

We think fraud... but it is more waste.

John Wanamaker I believe said

half my advertising works, I just don't know which half.

You are finding the half that doesn't work ;->

[chrisJumbo]

I'm with WebDango. You need some revenue generated to stay in business. You use PPC to start. And you work, work, work to get those organic rankings up.

Content, Content, Content, Articles, Press Releases, Relavent links, etc. Did I mention content?

Yahoo, Google, MSN will respond as they begin to feel pinched. Afterall MSN, just added the ability to not use DMOZ descriptions. They need revenue. Take it away and they will change.

[advancedmerchant]

When Yahoo was first exposed for its spyware click fraud, I posted:

"Yahoo's click-through ratio recently skyrocketed from an average 1.40% to 3.39%. Any SEO expert would tell you that you made a major positive change to your site, but we made none, and sales and applications have actually reduced lately, rather than increasing! We are actually watching as our advertising dollars go.. poof! It looks like Google is going to get Yahoo's budget until they cease doing business with spyware and false PPC companies. We spend (used to) about $3000 per month on Overture. I have just moved 95% of that to Google, and reduced my spend per click on Overture so low that it is not worth scamming. If all of us do the same, for long enough for it to appear on Yahoo's bottom line (perhaps a quarter), their shareholders will SCREAM."

We have turned off as many options in the engines, attempting to be available only in the actual Google, Y!, MSN, and other engines only, and our ROI has raised tremendously, and our spend has dropped considerably. As far as we are concerned, it is just not worth it for us to be anywhere than the home page search of the big engines... The distribution model just begs the affiliates and Adsense partners to 'tickle' their income by adding clicks on their sites.

[kjohnson5576]

Webdango, but it is fraud based on your research. I quote:

2. recipes[dot]com doesn't have a robots.txt file. It isn't providing any special instructions to spiders or bots crawling their site, such as banning them from crawling the links.

3. The links don't have a rel=nofollow. Search engine spiders will follow the links from recipes[dot]com through to Overture (YSM).

4. When recipes[dot]com gets crawled and search engine spiders or other bots follow the outbound links, Unless YSM is doing something on their end, the advertiser is getting charged.

Now go to Google and search for 'healthy recipes'. Scan the results around position five. recipes[dot]com is running AdWords ads to drive users to its site, where they will then click on YSM ads and make recipes[dot]com (and YSM) money.

Both Click fraud by spiders and Fraud based on using Google Adwords to lure people into a site that is nothing but PPC advertising. Yahoo Search Marketing should know the sites they allow to sell their advertising better than they are.

I'll assume that the Yahoo Search Marketing sends a pretty healthy check to Digimedia once per month. If I was sending pretty healthy checks to anyone once per month, I'd want to know what they are doing to earn the check. I'm sure something like this violates the TOS of Yahoo Search Marketing?

It's Yahoo that doesn't want to do anything about it. I've seen tons of Spammy sites clicked into from my Overture account. I will say, Google seems to be much more quality oriented (definately not perfect) as to the search partners it allows than Overture.