Google's Click Fraud Problem - Part 1

This is the first article of a 2-part series. Google is the leading Internet company. It's revenues have been soaring. In fact the first half of 2007 yeilded revenues of $4 Billion before the recession started. It has 40% market share of online US ad revenues. The majority of Google's revenues comes from adwords. Google faces a problem called the "Click Fraud" problem. In this article, we will discuss the problem, what is Google doing to combat it, and our recommendations.

What Is Google Adwords?

Adwords was Launched in 2000. It is Google's flagship product and the main source of revenue. It is mainly about pay-per-click and site-targeted advertising. It offers advertising for websites in search results and
Advertising based on keywords

How Google Ads Work?

If you search on google.com, you can see the 'sponsored links' displayed on the right side and on the top of the results. You can also see 'ads by google' on hundreds of websites. If you click on any ad, the advertiser is charged by google for your click as this is pay per click type of ad.

The Click Fraud Problem

What is click fraud? Google and the advertisers gain when genuine and interested surfers click on the ads and then browse the ad page. But if some one will mal-intentions start clicking on the ads, it is called as click fraud problem.

Why does someone do it? What are the types Of Click Fraud?

Someone commits click fraud when someone is unhappy about something. Or if someone is out to inflict bad on someone. Click fraud can be done by competition. A competitor could click on your ads so as to increase your ad spending without any gains. Political activists can indulge in clicking links of other political parties so as to increase their spend. Read further in part 2 of this article.

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