Google Confirms Click Fraud is Top Issue for Their Advertisers

[Jeff Martin]

This past Monday I attended the Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association monthly meeting. I was particularly interested in this meeting because from Google we had David Dietze, who handles all travel and technology commerce clients throughout the Southeast and Southwest, and Brian Devill (David called him the 'muscle') speaking on "The Search Economy," outlining best practice advertising and marketing strategies for 2005 and 2006.

There were two questions I wanted answered:

1. Will Google have an open policy in working with 3rd party click fraud software service providers who collect and aggregate PPC click information on behalf of advertisers?

Answer basically was yes.

2. How big of an issue is pay per click fraud to Google's on advertising clients in the pre and post sales process?

Answer was that it is THE issue for their self-managed clients.

My full blog on it is here (http://www.vericlix.com/2005/09/google-confirms-click-fraud-is-top.html).

[projectphp]

..it is THE issue for their self-managed clients.
If only that was true! I can't personally believe that everyone runs such excellent AdWords campaigns that the biggest issue is Click Fraud.

I mean, it may be the issue people perceive to be the biggest, but is it really? I bet most people thought a terrorist strike was a worse outcome than a hurricane as well, but it didn't make them right!

[AussieWebmaster]

If the number is 20 percent or higher I think it is a huge problem that needs to get addressed.

[Robert_Charlton]

Did they mention whether this is a problem for AdWords ads on Google? I would expect it to be much more of a problem for advertisers whose ads appear on AdSense sites.

[Mikkel deMib Svendsen]

outlining best practice advertising and marketing strategies for 2005 and 2006.

Did they mention the trend towards organic SEO and the fact that it shows higher ROI than paid placement and most other "medias"? :)

[Jeff Martin]

If only that was true! I can't personally believe that everyone runs such excellent AdWords campaigns that the biggest issue is Click Fraud. I received my information from the department of Google that actually interacts with the clients. Doubt if you want but thats the scoop first hand.
Did they mention whether this is a problem for AdWords ads on Google? I would expect it to be much more of a problem for advertisers whose ads appear on AdSense sites. There wasnt a distinction made between the two. Keep in mind that these are high level clients that Google themselves are managing...Et tu, Brute? It is unlikely that these clients, who are removed from the account management, would make a distintion between the two without Google explaining it to them. And, even if they are, it is still the biggest issue they themselves are tackling.
Did they mention the trend towards organic SEO and the fact that it shows higher ROI than paid placement and most other "medias"? There was talk of tying the two together. I, and others Im sure, have noticed that conversions are up sharply when both SEO and PPC are in play in unison.

[Robert_Charlton]

I, and others Im sure, have noticed that conversions are up sharply when both SEO and PPC are in play in unison.

There's a strong symbiotic effect that has been reported...

SEO vs Ads
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showpost.php?p=29523&postcount=3