Click Fraud Settlement, $90 Million Settlement Big Deal Options

[dougedoug]

Google wins by having only to pay $90 in a settlement to all advertisers from the last 4 years who used adsense. However it was on Fox News today and I expect to spread making people more aware of click fraud. I am also interested to see how google is gonna distribute these funds. Am I getting a check or just a credit to my account. Are they gonna just give it all to BMW?

[bragadocchio]

Welcome to the forums, dougedoug

Good to have you join us.

Danny Sullivan does a nice job of writing up the details here:

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060308-152034

There should be an option to opt-out, or to make a claim.

Sadly, most class action settlements rarely reflect actual loss. We'll have to wait to see what the terms of this one turn out to be. They should be made public in the near future.

[JohnMu]

Google has blogged about it as well, lots of interesting information:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/03/about-...lid-clicks.html

One interesting thing is that this specific item is that Google represents or handles both sides of the "problem": Adwords advertisers who spend money on advertising, and Adsense-publishers who gain money on advertising. That makes is a bit more complicated than someone who "just" publishes advertising for others.

I am not sure, but I imagine that Google will swallow the "invalid clicks" themselves, instead of deducting them from the Adsense publishers accounts, even though they might now have gotten paid for something that Google did not get paid for (in the end). I wonder what impact this will have on Adsense earnings? The harder they work against invalid clicks, the harder Adsense publishers have to fight to make sure they don't get their visitors clicks invalidated.

John

[rynert]

"Specifically, it would be credit to buy new advertising given, not a refund."

Which kinda makes the actual cost to Google zero - legal / processing fees asside.

[dougedoug]

Thanks for the Hello, I am thinking Google is just gonna eat this. $90 million is really not alot of money to Google. What it would take is for someone to get caught doing click fraud and then they would explain the amount of clicks they did. In my opinion probably 5% of all clicks is competition clicking on your ads, either to check you out or to drain your wallet.