Jigantus.com

Techcrunch just wrote an article about click fraud.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/report-click-fraud-at-record-high/

It says that click fraud is at an all time high, possibly due to the economy problems. I actually suspected this before the article came out.

Even on reduced bidding, we have lower sales and more clicks then before. How else could this be? Click fraud has always been one of those things ad providers like Google, Yahoo, or anyone else involved in PPC sweeps under the rug.

They play it low key, to keep their model and revenue going. After all, why would they want to kill 30% of their existing revenue?

The FBI can detect and locate hackers, why can’t the PPC people do it? They have the resources.

Bringing in revenue for the big corporate giants is the game now. Integrity is gone. Google’s motto was “Do No Harm” but by letting things like this go, they are in fact doing MUCH harm buy standing still. Using the excuse that they didn’t actually do it, doesn’t hold water.

The next generation model that makes sense is the Pay Per Action one. No fraud, and advertisers pay only if they get results. Problem is Google doesn’t want to give up their fat margin PPC system even though it IS better for the customer.

I understand this perfectly, they can’t give up their $16 billion plus ad model to move to a lower revenue PPA system. More revenue keeps them on top, gives them money to stop and crush PPA opponents before they can get off the ground.

Because Google has so much traffic, advertisers continue to use them. As long as Google can keep up the traffic, their PPC model should survive. They even have a Chief Economist for PPC, which shows you how much they need to keep this system alive.

Google knows that PPA is the next natural step, but are trying to prevent it and milk as much mileage out of PPC as they can.

PPA will come, when and form whom, I don’t know, but the way things are going, it has too. It will take a site that has GREAT traffic,  and a PPA model to make them stop and think. But perhaps they just buy them and make sure the ad model is PPC. Was that a Youtube strategy? Google bought  Youtube so Microsoft doesn’t get them into a PPA model?  Maybe, at least part of it.

Anyways, click fraud, over bidding will continue as long as PPC thrives. Unfortunately we have to play the game…at least for now.