Adsense Fraud

Google CFO speaks out

[blairsp]

Not sure if I can post the url (a mod can always delete it), but the Google CFO spoke out earlier this week about the challenges facing the company re click fraud. Now, if you had just gone public(in terms of shares) how interested would your new sharholders be in hearing that 70-80% of your companies income is open to fraud?
Moneyweek url:

[money.cnn.com...]

[roitracker]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[blairsp]

Many thanks. Nevber hang about the adwords forums as I don't have adwords. Most of the discussion there (of course) centres on the adwords advertisers viewpoint (quite rightly so). Wonder what the adsense publishers view point is?

[europeforvisitors]

Wonder what the adsense publishers view point is?

Most publishers probably don't even think about it--they just stick the AdSense code on their sites and colect their monthly revenues. Awareness of the issue is probably greatest among advertisers who are victims or (in some cases) perpetrators of click fraud.

[Never_again]

Click fraud will continue to be a problem and it could kill PPC programs if not kept at in check. I don't think you can completely eliminate the problem, but it does concern me that it appears to be a growing problem. I'm not sure it is correct, but from reading the thread in the AdWord forum, most think it is only a problem on "content" websites, i.e., AdSense. If this perception grows, more and more AdWord advertisers will drop content site from their campaigns. Not a good trend!

Personally, I think the bigger problem for Google and AdWord advertisers is the proliferation of built for AdSense “directory” and other scum sites. IMHO Google must take a stand and start dumping these sites from both AdSense and Google’s search results.

[roitracker]

Wonder what the adsense publishers view point is?

Other than worrying about getting their account suspended, probably not much. ;)

I think that competitor clicking to deplete budgets is far less of a problem than fraudulent clicking by publishers/networks designed to generate more income.

As far as AdSense goes, Google has brought the problem on themselves by not vetting EVERY SINGLE SITE that runs adsense, combined with the fact that content match is "on" by default within AdWords.

Consequences for adsense publishers?

More attention to new sites... stricter guidelines... maybe even a review of every site that runs adsense...& the subsequent banning of content scrapers & auto-generated sites (should never have been allowed in in the first place IMO).

I think the bigger problem for Google and AdWord advertisers is the proliferation of built for AdSense “directory” and other scum sites. IMHO Google must take a stand and start dumping these sites from both AdSense and Google’s search results.

I couldn't agree more!

[Mauricio]

think the bigger problem for Google and AdWord advertisers is the proliferation of built for AdSense “directory” and other scum sites. IMHO Google must take a stand and start dumping these sites from both AdSense and Google’s search results.

Most of us think this way but the question is the Google point of view about this. Obviously, the Google's marketers aren't stupids and they know about those sites and how many fast bucks are both doing (publishers and Google).

Why do you think they are allowed? It's just about money?

[annej]

I'm concerned as a publisher. It hurts us as well. It affects the ads we get, the resulting smart pricing, the reputation of AdSense, the number of advertisers opting for content sites and ultimately whether AdSense will survive at all.

I'm also very concerned with the 'scum sites' as they hurt the reputation of adsense and make it less likely people will click on true content sites. Content sites should really be content sites.

I really hope Google does something about this. Without scum sites there might not be nearly as much fraud.

[internetheaven]

Personally, I think the bigger problem for Google and AdWord advertisers is the proliferation of built for AdSense “directory” and other scum sites.

Google obviously don't have a problem with them as they are ranking thousands of them in the top 10 of commercial and non-commercial searches. They have a high profile and Google surely can't have missed them and yet they haven't done anything which suggests to me that they don't care.

Sorry if I missed the "description of a scum site" thread but could someone please repeat what that means exactly? I understand what an Adsense directory is (that's the ones I was talking about above) but what's a "scum site"?

Thanks

[annej]

To me it's anything void of content and just thrown together to attract people who will click on AdSense ads.

They especially annoy me when I am really wanting to find an item I want to buy or to research before buying. When I search on Google instead of getting info or an online store I get this kind of a site.

I don't know why Google seems to like them. I suppose the money they make for Google is more important to them than sticking to the original plan of putting AdWords on CONTENT sites.