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Having run a CPC network, I can say "definitely yes" - we pursue fraud aggressively. I enjoyed the article and appreciate his sleuthing, but his conclusion is c
by jonkelly 16y ago
Having run a CPC network, I can say "definitely yes" - we pursue fraud aggressively. I enjoyed the article and appreciate his sleuthing, but his conclusion is completely wrong (at least for major CPC advertisers, who are almost all ROAS-driven) - the biggest advertisers care deeply about their results. I would go so far as to say that the lack of policing of the Overture feed on parked domains was a significant (if not the most significant) issue in Yahoo's poor monetization of search and eventual failure with that product.
- pirot 16y agoNotice that most of the affected advertisers are the ones running the CPM campaigns, not the CPC campaigns. The defrauded CPC campaigns were directing people to sites with video content that were running mainly display advertising campaigns. These display ads were mainly from brand advertisers that do not care too much about clickthroughs or conversions (e.g., Coca Cola, or Continental, or Verizon, or ...). So, even though the guys running the CPC campaigns (e.g. Mevio) were victims of fraud, they were getting the (invisible) traffic and they were selling the display ads to this traffic. Not that Mevio et al. do not care. Quite the oppositve. However they were just getting more traffic. Why would you research your own CPC ad campaign that is effective in bringing you traffic? I tell you, the scammer has executed this beautifully.