AdSense Pay-Per-Action: End Of Click Fraud?
It is bound to happen one day. As click-fraud issues mounting up, AdSense is moving towards affiliate marketing style, introducing cost-per-action ads.
David Jackson of SeekingAlpha reports that Google is inviting a selected group of AdSense webmasters to test out the new “Cost-Per-Action” (CPA) ads. Quoting reprint of Google’s mail:
How do I get paid?
You get paid whenever a site visitor clicks on the ad on your site AND performs a specified action, such as generating a lead or purchasing a product.
And unlike traditional ads, webmasters are allowed to choose what products to display and to actively promote it.
How can I promote the CPA ad unit?
Since this is a test and these CPA ads are not regular ad units, we are giving you more flexibility in saying things like “I recommend this product” or “Try JetBlue today” next to the CPA ad unit. However, you should still not incite someone to click on the ad, so saying “Click Here” is not ok.
Currently, AdSense offer pay-per-click (CPC) ads and pay-per-view(CPM) ads to the publishers, both with their own problem. CPC ads pay publishers when some one clicks on the ads. This has been long pointed out as a major problem as it creates incentive for click-fraud.
CPM ads does not fare much better than CPC ads. Hidden ads that no one click on, automatically generated page views, and sneaky redirects are just some problems that plague the system.
Pay-per-action ads – it seems – is the perfect solutions. Publishers get paid only when someone clicks on the ads and take some action (like buying a product) from the advertisers’ site. It will be much, much harder for publishers to abuse the system, as whatever is paid to them is less than what the advertiser makes from the sale. From advertisers’ view, it will be much easier to calculate the ROI, as they pay only for sales made.
Cheatad ! SEO, Google Adsense & Technolgy Blog
I took it more as Google diversifying competitively than as a portent of future paradigm shift-age. Just as they added scheduling to Adwords to compete with adCenter, they seem to be also looking to compete with the big affiliate networks.
This is a good thing, either way.
I would agree that this would be a good move by Google, should they ever actually implement it in a meaningful way. Unfortunately, they won’t. Google has absolutely no reason whatsoever to actively combat click fraud, and every reason (100 Billion reasons in fact) to continue with their current ppc model.
Because 99% of Google’s revenue comes from this one highly suspect source, there is virtually no way that Google will willingly tinker with this model or change the scam in any way. I believe Google knows that the ppc scam will have to end someday, but I see no reason why they won’t continue it until forced to change by a competitor (see John’s comments above.)
Sites like this, which are probably just Google corporate fronts, try to get the story out that Google is tough on scammers and fraud in order to reassure would be advertisers that they aren’t throwing their money away on a worthless product. But Google’s not tough on fraud, and why should they be? Its their main source of revenue. Come to think of it, have you ever heard on anyone that has been prosecuted for click-fraud? Aside from that one idiot that tried to extort Google, and the 3 guys that got busted for the Clickbot.A virus, I’ve never heard of anyone that has gotten in trouble for click fraud other than getting their Adsense account banned.
Anecdotally, I can’t think of anyone that has ever knowingly clicked on a web ad. Maybe occasionally someone would accidentally click on an ad, not realizing it was an ad. This should amount to about a .5% click through rate at best.
Much as I wish, I’m not working for Google nor affiliated with them in any way, other than as an AdSense publisher and user of their many products.
Last year, Google won $75000 in a suit againts Auctions Expert for clik-fraud. I’m sure there are other legal suits, eventough I can’t find any.
Google has many reasons to fight click-fraud. To protect their business model, and to compete with other ads networks.
List of pay per click programs: http://www.sitesreview.net/pay-per-click
Dear, I Am Making My Account In AdSense But GoogLe Support`s Are Not Replying Me.
Can Any One Help Me ?
You need to wait. That’s all.