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Google launching tools to fight click fraud

Juan Carlos Perez of IDG News Service reports that starting this month Google will allow advertisers to blacklist certain IP addresses. Advertiser’s will then not be charged for clicks on sponsored links when the click originates from a computer on a blacklisted IP address. Google’s also launching this month a ‘resource center’ devoted to click fraud, where the company will post information and tutorials to educate its advertisers.

Lawyers, who buy a ton of sponsored links for keywords relating to their area of practice and locale, are, no doubt, big time victims of click fraud which happens when someone clicks on these ads with malicious purposes. Perez reports the numbers on click fraud are no small potatoes:

Estimates about the incidence of click fraud vary widely, with some people saying it affects a negligible amount of ads and others suggesting that upwards of 40 percent of all clicks are malicious……

ClickForensics LLC, which provides technology and services to combat click fraud, estimates that in last year’s fourth quarter 14.2 percent of clicks were fraudulent.

Google told Perez it was less than 10 percent, declining to be more specific.

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