Google (GOOG) has challenged certain large click-fraud auditing firms of making assertions based upon flawed technology, according to an article in the Financial Times.
Essentially Google is saying that they have financial incentive to make things look as bad as they can for the purpose of selling their click-fraud products.
"When considering the validity of this exaggerated 30% figure, you should also consider who is most aggressively using it: it is those who have the most to gain from hyping the problem. Those who are throwing around this figure are doing so as part of their marketing efforts to sell products they claim detect click fraud."
In their 17-page report called "How Fictitious Clicks Occur in Third-Party Click Fraud Audit Reports," Google asserts that many of the figures thrown around are overblown because auditing companies are including clicks in their count that were never made on Google Adwords advertisements.
Cnet added that "Part of the problem with determining an accurate click fraud rate is that auditors need to see both the traffic conversion data at the Web site and at the search engine company, which Google doesn't provide. Not having both sets of data "makes it difficult for us to marry it all together," said Tom Cuthbert, chief executive of Click Forensics, one of the auditing companies mentioned in the Google report."
It's good to get Google's side of the story in this; as we've only heard the side of the auditors up to this point. The comment by Tom Cuthbert above is interesting in that he admits that it is hard to get an accurate click fraud rate without Google's data.
With the courts appointment independent auditor recently saying that after he studied Google's system, he understood why they couldn't release how they do it because it would make click fraud worse; along with saying that they auditors are now saying they are basically guessing without the required data, it will be interesting to see where this issue twists and turns to in the future.
Google has said that once accurate standards are in place, they will submit unto third-party independent audits and their conclusions.
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