Lanes Gifts vs. Google - Class Action Click Fraud Settlement

[dartman]

Apparently the settlement funds in this case have been disbursed since we received a credit to our adwords account today as well as a notification direct from Google. We are also awaiting credits from Checkmate vs. Yahoo and Online Merchant Systems vs. Yahoo

The upshot to this is that lawsuits about PPC Fraud continue to be filed. In the Tuzhilin report (link below) there is mention of more emphasis towards PPA (pay per action) as opposed to PPC which should go a long way in minimizing ad fraud.

Comments?

Read about the Lane Case here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/...-v-google.html

Detailed investigation on click fraud here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/pdf/Tuzhilin_Report.pdf

[Tubby]

quote
"there is mention of more emphasis towards PPA (pay per action) as opposed to PPC which should go a long way in minimizing ad fraud."

Pay per action is a bigger fraud temptation. It is free brand name recognition. and users on my site have personally bought thousands of dollars of merchandise. . just for me to be told that there could have been an 'earlier cookie' Many affiliate programs only try half heatedly to sell a product. . they simply rely on huge traffic sent by gullible webmasters. many make money by simply forwarding traffic. . NO WAY.... HOSAI.

follow a link on my sites and I want compensation.
There are cost involved in acquiring traffic. . letting that traffic leak out of the doors on the perchance that someone might credit me something. . . Is living in the dream world. . .

[dartman]

Specifically - more emphasis towards PPA "with the Adwords program".

RE: Tuzhilin Report Cited
Although currently popular, the CPC/PPC model has two fundamental problems:
• Although correlated, good click-through rates (CTRs) are still not indicative of
good conversion rates, since it is still not clear if a visitor would buy an advertised
product once he or she clicked on the ad. In this respect, the CPA-based models
provide better solutions for the advertisers (but not necessarily for the search
engines), since they are more indicative that their ads are “working.”
• It does not offer any “built-in” fundamental protection mechanisms against the
click fraud since it is very hard to specify which clicks are valid vs. invalid in
general, as will be explained in Section 8 (it can be done relatively easily in some
special cases, but not in general). For this reason, major search engines launched
extensive invalid click detection programs and still face problems combating click
fraud.
In response to these two problems and for various other business reasons, Google is
currently testing a CPA payment model, according to some reports in the media. Some
analysts believe that the conversion-based CPA model is more robust for the advertisers
and also less prone to click fraud. Therefore, they believe that the future of the online
advertising payments lies with the CPA model.

[Tubby]

quote
"they believe that the future of the online
advertising payments lies with the CPA model."

This is one of the problems with the net. . We look at what is happening and come up with something to counter it. . . Then everyone changes what was happening, to re-address the problem so that the same result is achieved.

My thinking is If Google change to a CPA model a lot of advertisers will simply cover their costs, by using the traffic in greater proportion than they did on the pay per click. . Lets face it a lot of low paid clicks are being purchased for pages that are designed to get users to click on higher paid words.

Google must know that if they change anything, then user habits will change to counter it. Any sensible attempt to stop fraudulent use would start with a stable base. . then to pick off the problems one by one. Changing the problems is teenager thinking. .

[dartman]

I think some type of change is inevitable for Goog, Yah, et al to address click fraud and lawsuits unless they don't care about a $90M settlement here, a $50M settlement there, etc. Adsense and similar affiliate type programs opened the doors for click fraud. If the Adword program changes to a conversion based rather then per click model would it not derail many of the link farms that exist solely for click incentives?

[Tubby]

"If the Ad word program changes to a conversion based rather then per click model would it not derail many of the link farms that exist solely for click incentives?"

Yes.

But this would then move Google on. . this would throw away all the experience that Google has accumulated about fighting click fraud.

Now users have a brand new target to scam. a bigger target. (why did Google chose click in the first place) It will take several years to expose all the new tricksters, (targeting a fresh system)

Basically all this exercise does is say to the people. We can eliminate the problem graffiti with our blue paint. by changing to red paint.

Yes. it would remove the Blue paint problem.
If the Legal 'brains' at Google Decide a change of direction will solve their legal problems, then Google will become just another company run by its Ass end.
Google would be telling the world 'solve this click fraud problem - and take this market' - someone will solve it . . and take the market. . that is the American way.

This smells like a 'committee decision' you know the sort, where there are many options and everyone argues forever, and finally settle on a compromised solution that partially satisfies everyone. It says to me Google needs an 'Iron hand' at the top that says "FIX CLICK FRAUD" or I will replace you with someone that can.

I do not think Google will Ditch PPC, I think it is all Bullshit, it has to be . . . . .

[dartman]

Good points. Time will tell what shakes out of this.

[Tubby]

Well. It does not really matter, If anyone is right or wrong. I get the chance to ramble on and fill some gaps underneath the previous posts, and hopefully get a chance to read what other people think . I like to get my thought in early, , this way after Google does something, I can avoid the rush of people saying 'I knew this or that' but never said until the 'after the event' action is well under way.
I hate saying what everyone else is saying. It also gives me a slim chance of being able to post an 'I told you so' message sometimes - (if I can remember what it was I said)