AdWords clients now will be able to view real-time reporting of fraudulent clicks through advanced reporting options in their AdWords account.
Google’s critics have continually harped that the search engine giant has not implemented enough preventative measures to combat invalid clicks, which is costing its advertisers money. They argue that since Google keeps its tactics opaque to clients, there is no way to assess the effectiveness of its detection methods.
“The metrics of ‘invalid clicks’ and ‘invalid clicks rate’ will show virtually all the invalid clicks affecting an account,” Google’s Business Product Manager for Trust and Safety Shuman Ghosemajumder wrote on the company’s AdWords blog. “These clicks are filtered in real-time by our systems before advertisers are charged for them. The resulting data will of course differ from one advertiser to the next.
“A much smaller number of invalid clicks may also be credited to advertisers’ accounts after the fact, as the result of a publisher being terminated from the AdSense program for invalid click activity.”
Ghosemajumder also wrote that Google is providing a new tool to help customers estimate the number of invalid clicks.
“Advertisers have always been able to compare their log data with their AdWords charges to calculate an estimate of the number of invalid clicks in their own account,” he wrote. “This new tool will make estimating invalid click activity much easier.”
Google has taken plenty of heat in recent months regarding click fraud.
In March, Google agreed to up to $90 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it overcharged thousands of advertisers who paid for bogus sales referrals generated by click fraud.
On Monday, XBIZ reported that 51 plaintiffs in that case have raised objections with the settlement, saying the deal unfairly shifts to them the burden of proving their losses and that they don’t have the resources to easily pursue their claims.
With the proposed settlement, no advertiser will receive cash, but they will receive $60 million distributed as Google advertising credits. Plaintiff attorneys will receive $30 million.