Google to offer advertisers click fraud stats

Responding to concerns about click fraud in the online-ad industry, Google will be revealing to advertisers the number of invalid clicks on their ads with changes it’s set to make to its AdWords system late Tuesday.

Now advertisers will be able to see the number of invalid clicks Google found, as well as what percentage that represents of total clicks registered, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google.

Click fraud occurs when Web site publishers click on ads on their site to boost their revenue or when companies click on rivals’ ads to eat away at their advertising budgets. Invalid clicks, for which Google does not charge advertisers, include inadvertent double clicks on an ad, according to Ghosemajumder.

“Advertisers asked us for more transparency on this issue,” he said. “Until now advertisers haven’t had a great deal of data to compare from their own accounts in order to be able to understand what Google is doing for them.”

Without relevant click fraud data from Google, advertisers have had to rely on estimates from third-party companies that provide services to combat click fraud and that Google accuses of inflating numbers to drive more business.

Industry reports say fraudulent clicks range from 14.1 percent to 14.6 percent to as high as 20 percent of total clicks.

Full story: CNET News.com