Google launches Click-Fraud resource centre

Google Inc has launched a new site providing information about ‘click fraud’, a serious threat to pay-per-click advertising, the company’s main revenue stream.

Google developed the new Ad Traffic Quality Resource Centre to address the increasing problem of click fraud - some organisations estimate the incidence of click fraud at over 30%.

The resource centre gives Google’s advertisers a single place to find information about the practice and ways of combating it.

In the pay-per-click format, companies advertise their products and services by placing an add on Google. The company is charged a fee each time someone clicks on their add, which is linked to a Web page.

‘Click fraud’ occurs when companies click on competitors’ ads to drive up their ad spending.

Click fraud can also be carried out by Web publishers who click on their sites’ ads to increase their commissions.

According to Google’s own research, the problem isn’t as prevalent as the 30% incidence suggested by other studies.

After monitoring its own network, Google concluded that less than 10 percent of clicks on Google ads are invalid. It also found that only 0.02 percent are declared invalid as a result of advertisers’ complaints.

Google’s Ad Traffic Quality Resource Centre, which was originally due to open in March 2007, features a service called IP Filtering.

This allows advertisers to “blacklist” certain IP (Internet Protocol) addresses if they are suspicious of click fraud or if their clicks never lead to a sale.

Google already informs advertisers of the number of invalid clicks to their campaigns, but now plans to add further detail to these reports, including the amount of money Google didn’t bill the advertiser by detecting and discarding invalid clicks.