I just wrote this up on another forum and the response and emails have been so overwhelming that I thought I should maybe post it here too... Awareness and knowledge is power. I hope you find it helpful.
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The Google "settlement"... brings up TWO very distint questions (and perspectives).
1 - What is Click Fraud? We all agree that clicking for the sake of clicking is NOT what the program was intended for and therefore wrong... but is it FRAUD?
I've read a few suggestions that if you don't intend to BUY and you click, that's fraud.
I disagree...
these are ADS, not shopping carts. You click an AD to review a product, good or service. THEN you decide if you want to buy or not. Advertisers are paying for the EXPOSURE, not the sale. If I see an interesting looking ad, I'll click it... check it out. See what it's all about. If I'm interested, I'll buy. If not, I won't. It's like walking through the mall... whether or not I stop and look, the shop keepers are still paying rent. They don't get a discount if I don't stop by nor do they get billed extra if I do.
This leads me to the next point
2 - CPM advertising is just exactly like every other type of advertising except that you are getting the benefit of some form of PROOF that people are actually seeing your ad.
Buy an ad in a Newspaper. Not a classified, a REAL AD. How is your purchased equated? Number of subscribers, size and location.
You pay as if EVERY SINGLE subscriber will respond to your ad. But they don't and I don't think a canary's butthole can read.
Magazines are the same, only worse... I should know, this is my real life business: I work for Publishers Buying and Placing Media into Magazines.
Better Homes and Gardens charges nearly $400,000 PER MONTH for a full page ad in their magazine.
$400 GRAND!!! PER MONTH!!!
Try this for giggles... pick up a copy of GH&G and start counting full page ads from the beginning and realize just how many full page ads are in there BEFORE you get to ANY page of content. Then multiply that times $400K. Oh good Lord!
Where's the outcry about Reader Fraud? I've read BH&G and I've looked at pages that contain ads and I've even read those ads... with ZERO intention of buying lemon scented douche bags.
It's shotgun advertising.... you pick the vehicle and open you checkbook. That's the way it works.
PPC ads reverse the theory a bit but it's all the same deal... only the marketing department has spun it in a way that deals with the argument Print media publishers deal with every day... "WHO sees the ads and how do we know?"
PPC seeks to defeat this argument by only charging advertisers each time an ad is looked at... regardless of the intention. Advertisers AGREED to that deal when they signed up. They are in essense trying to cheat the advertising model to begin with[ and then complaining about the fact that people may be looking but not BUYING.
That's why it's called ADVERTISING, not SELLING.
Let's get back to the question of FRAUD. Considering what is true about advertising, a company that is insisting is has been defrauded by PPC advertising has a sizable job ahead of them. In just about every states, the accuser has to porve several elements for a case to be found as Fraud. FRAUD would indicate that the clickor and the accounting department are in flagrande delecto with the express purpose of stealing from the client. FRAUD is premeditated. FRAUD is conspired.
Note that Google, in it's "Fraud Settlement" didn't PAY anything, but offered discounts, rebates and incentives for advertisers to continue to work with them. Google would NOT have lost a Fraud case... but it would have cost them Millions in physical dollars as well as negative press to defend against this "fraudulent" case. But it is rarely ecconomically viable for corporations to stand on principle. They did the only thing they could... compromise and move on.
Again, while I agree that sitting on a page repeat clicking ads for the express purpose of running up ad Revs for yourself or anyone else is WRONG... I don't consider it FRAUD.
PPC is still a VERY good way to advertise and a very good way to gauge your reach and exposure. BUT...
it is flawed from its inception if people think they are paying only for buyers, not browsers. It is, after all, an Internet Browser.
Please don't think I'm advocating clicking ads just for money. I'm not. But I am saying that the entire thing needs to be revamped rather than restricted.
There are ads popping up on my own sites that I would LOVE to click because of the content. But I can't click or even buy through that ad because of fear of being dropped by Adsense. That is
COSTING THE ADVERTISER A SALE. And the Advertiser will soon figure out that by conspiring with publishers to NOT click ads...
IS FRAUD
Read it twice... it's really good stuff.
GoPC
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