Comment Re:Joel's Complaint: not quite true (Score 3, Informative) 181
I do help run one of the larger Search engine marketing firms in the world http://www.pinstorm.com/ - we have offices in India and Singapore - and do a lot of work for clients around the world - including in India and China.
And this complaint comes up often here - and is not quite true.
First - Google only shows ads to viewers from a country you've picked for your ads to be shown in. Here's an example of what a search for "iPod" will generate in the US http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&new window=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=ipod&btnG=Search&gl=u s
and here's what it generates in the UK http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&new window=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=ipod&btnG=Search&gl=u k As you can see - the editorial - or organic - results are the same - but the ads / sponsored links are entirely different.
So for an ad to be clicked on - the advertiser must ask for it to be shown in that country. i.e. You can't get Indian or Chinese clicks till you advertise there.
The sad truth is also that most advertisers are also silly enough to choose a "global" setting (check these ads appearing in India for US stock brokerages - when it is illegal for Indians to trade freely on US exchanges : http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&new window=1&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=stock+broker&btnG=Sea rch&gl=in There is a way around it for those ad-clickers, of course - and that is to proxy through a US IP address - in which case, the visitor will be reported as a US visitor on your weblogs.
This is not to say the problem doesn't exist. It does - and it does so where these ad-clickers (not in villages, puhleeese!) in India or China or Eastern Europe are paid by US companies and given proxying software to click on their rivals ads. But most modern clickfraud tracking software (we have our own) can detect this easily.
There is something much harder to detect - impression frauding more than click frauding - where someone first removes their ad from a search term - and then does massive multiple searches on the same term - WITHOUT clicking on ads - hence decreasing the click-through rates of those competitive ads - and then places their own ads on the term to get a higher click-through and rank higher.
But there are ways to detect that too - and we do so.
If it's any consolation- most of the click fraud we detect for our American clients emanate from the US itself. Clickfrauders are equal-opportunity employers, I guess;)
Regards
Mahesh
And this complaint comes up often here - and is not quite true.
First - Google only shows ads to viewers from a country you've picked for your ads to be shown in. Here's an example of what a search for "iPod" will generate in the US http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ne
So for an ad to be clicked on - the advertiser must ask for it to be shown in that country. i.e. You can't get Indian or Chinese clicks till you advertise there.
The sad truth is also that most advertisers are also silly enough to choose a "global" setting (check these ads appearing in India for US stock brokerages - when it is illegal for Indians to trade freely on US exchanges : http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ne
This is not to say the problem doesn't exist. It does - and it does so where these ad-clickers (not in villages, puhleeese!) in India or China or Eastern Europe are paid by US companies and given proxying software to click on their rivals ads. But most modern clickfraud tracking software (we have our own) can detect this easily.
There is something much harder to detect - impression frauding more than click frauding - where someone first removes their ad from a search term - and then does massive multiple searches on the same term - WITHOUT clicking on ads - hence decreasing the click-through rates of those competitive ads - and then places their own ads on the term to get a higher click-through and rank higher.
But there are ways to detect that too - and we do so.
If it's any consolation- most of the click fraud we detect for our American clients emanate from the US itself. Clickfrauders are equal-opportunity employers, I guess;)
Regards
Mahesh
