rjzak - 2:15 pm on Apr 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

You are an informed ad buyer, and you have appropriately gauged the risks.

But even if you eliminate click fraud, you still need to be an informed buyer. Competition will drive up bid prices and you need to know how much to spend. Your revenue yield will need to be known to set a proper bid price.

The same is true for the print advertising industry and even some TV advertising. Their prices are CPM; though, the informed ad buyers put tracking phone numbers and discount codes in their advertisements. They know their yield.

Whatever the pricing model (and associated fraud/leakage that comes with it), it comes down to what you spend versus what you get back from it. Informed ad buyers are more likely to succeed (the more informed the better). Uninformed ad buyers are less likely.