click fraud tools from google

[blairsp]

I am sure this will have been discussed in the adwords forum but what impact will it have on adsense. Will advertisers be able to simply block IP addresses due to poor sales returns. A nice twist to smart pricing

[news.yahoo.com...]

[gendude]

I would like to think it would hurt the MFAers....

[joelgreen]

Its by IP, so advertiser would ban all sites from the same ip (if on shared hosting). Why not ban by domain?

[ashii]

The yahoo news article is about blocking displaying of ads on a particular IP (Read Computer) not the websites hosted on a shared server.

[jomaxx]

The article is unclear on what's being blocked. They can already block domains from showing their ads, so it's more likely this is aimed at blocking individual IP addresses from clicking. Seems to me this would be mainly used for preventing competing AdWords bidders from intentionally driving your costs up.

[Hobbs]

blocking individual IP addresses from clicking

Actually it is blocking IPs from seeing their ads in the first place not just clicking.

[ronburk]

Why not ban by domain?

Because a whole lot of computers in the world do not have any domain name. And a whole lot more have a domain name that will change the next time the fraudster dials up, or turns their computer on in the morning.

Advertisers say things like: "I'm getting hammered with clicks from a school system in China and I want that cut off now!"

This will probably work great for some corner cases like the oft-requested "Is there any way to automatically block my company ads from appearing to people browsing from our computers?". Less well for amateur fraud, and an endless whack-a-mole game for professional fraud via botnets.

Interestingly, it may be more a move to transfer some liability than to actually get honest about the problem. Watch closely to see what the TOS says about this when it's unveiled. When the next 8-digit law suit for click fraud appears, Google may want to be able to say: "Isn't it true that you had the ability to block any IP addresses you believed were generating invalid clicks?"

[Jafo]

If they can block ip ranges, or even geotarget IP's, that would be great for everyone.

If I am selling stuff that I do not ship to say, France, why not block France from seeing my ads? In the end it would benefit Google, Myself, and the French.

[jomaxx]

Geotargeting is already available for advertisers.

[joelgreen]

The yahoo news article is about blocking displaying of ads on a particular IP (Read Computer) not the websites hosted on a shared server.

Oops. You are right. I misunderstood article.