Pay Per Click Search Engines Update #006

October 31, 2000.

INDEX

1. Is Sprinks defrauding you?
2. GoTo UK launching soon
3. SearchHound and Mamma in alliance

1. Is Sprinks defrauding you?
=============================

Since About.com's pay per click search engine, Sprinks, was launched, there have been many complaints about the way it conducts itself.

Suspicion arose last month when Sprinks sent out a low balance notification and accidentally revealed the email addresses of over 1,200 of its advertisers.

I have also received complaints from people regarding the way Sprinks handles fraudulent clicks. We were sent a copy of the following email.

<snip>
To Sprinks technical dept:

I recently conducted a test using the sprinks CPC system and found a major flaw. The flaw in the system doesn't treat a click as unique; that is the same person can click as many times as he wants on a link and the advertiser will pay for each one. The test was conducted in the following manner:

1) I opened a window and logged into my sprinks account.
2) I added $50 dollars in my account
3) after several minutes I opened another window and verified that my account was 'online' again.
4) I did a 'keyword' search, and found my link with a cost of $2 per click.
5) I clicked on that link 25 times, while holding down shift (holding down shift while clicking a link just causes a new browser window to open, keeping the search results in the same window.)
6) I logged back into my account and noticed that my money was at ZERO.

I asked over 15 webmasters who I know advertise with sprinks to try this test, all came back with the same results.

What does this mean? Anyone can do a search on any keyword and empty someone's account in a matter of minutes! This abuse happened to me several times already without me knowing about the this flaw, costing me 1000's of dollars! After speaking with the other webmasters, they too admitted that occasionally 100's of dollars were unexplainably missing over an 8 hour period.
</snip>

We forwarded a copy of the email to Sprinks and asked it whether this is at all possible or whether it's just malicious nonsense.

Here is the reply we received from Scott Rader, who is the director of product development for Sprinks.

<snip>
If Sprinks customers have specific concerns about suspicious activity on your account, they can send us a note, along with any documentation they may have and we will investigate and help solve any problems that may exist. At the same time, we institute vigorous daily monitoring of traffic logs and if we notice unusual activity on a customer's account, we will take action to rectify and credit the customer for invalid clicks if necessary. I must say that these cases are indeed rare, although it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the bunch.

What is suspicious activity? It typically consists of questionable clicks from repeat visitors. Again, although it happens infrequently, it is an issue that affects all pay-per- click sites -- one that frustrates us as well as our competitors. One of the biggest challenges in dealing with this problem is determining what constitutes an illegitimate click. Many site visitors, including members of popular Internet Service Providers such as America Online, appear to our server as if they are all coming from the same IP address (the unique number that identifies a user's origin on the Internet). This makes it quite difficult to target a unique offender and block or negate their click-throughs. By blocking a 'repeat' IP, we could effectively be blocking an entire range of users -- hundreds or even thousands -- behind a firewall or proxy for an ISP, corporation or university.

Although we can currently determine that repeated click-throughs have occurred after the fact and rectify the problem afterwards, the Sprinks Development Team is working on a solution that will proactively solve illegitimate clicking before it happens. Our solution will entail a mechanism that will prevent a customer from being charged for invalid click-throughs, should they occur. We will use a combination of IP monitoring and client-side cookies that will detect and disable repetitious clicks from the same visitor. This will dramatically curb but not entirely eliminate the occurrence of suspicious clicks. In reality, there will always be those who are determined to get around preventative measures.
</snip>

What I understand it to say, is that Sprinks does not have an automated system in place to prevent fraudulent clicks. However, it does currently learn of repeated clicks after it happens.

It would seem to me that the obvious thing would be to have a software tracking system put in place, immediately. GoTo and other pay per click search engines obviously come across similar hurdles, yet I haven't received complaints from any GoTo.com advertisers.

When GoTo has tracked fraudulent clicks through my account, the money has always been reimbursed straight away and I was notified.

I think Sprinks should endeavor to find a solution to its tracking problems quickly, otherwise it will lose a lot of business.

2. GoTo UK launching soon
=========================

In early November GoTo.com is launching GoTo UK. If you want to advertise on GoTo UK, the £10 sign-up fee is being waived until next year.

Some controversy has risen regarding the minimum bid that GoTo UK will have in place. The minimum bid, 5 pence, is equivalent to 7 or 8 US cents.

GoTo justifies the higher cost by stating that advertising in the UK is more expensive. It is also still less expensive and more effective than banner advertising.

In the long run, the minimum bid being higher really makes no difference for popular search terms. If the bidding becomes as competitive as it is on GoTo, you will have to bid well over 5 pence to get your site listed high in the rankings.

If your company would definitely benefit from UK specific advertising, then it may be worth it to pay extra. If you don't want to bid higher, there are 4 other UK based pay per click search engines listed on http://PayPerClickSearchEngines.com.

It costs £25 to start a bidding account. If you sign up now, you won't have to pay the £10 sign up fee. When GoTo UK launches in early November, you will be able to actively manage your account online then.

More information: http://goto.com/d/specials/i/uk/ [UPDATE: This link is obsolete.]

3. SearchHound and Mamma in alliance
====================================

SearchHound.com has entered into a strategic alliance with Mamma.com. Mamma.com receives an average of 100 million page impressions per month and has about 4.7 million unique visitors each month.

SearchHound and Mamma.com will now share in the others' revenue from paid bids and sponsor paid keyword bids.

The alliance will significantly increase the number of search results and the number of relevant results at SearchHound.com.

More information: http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001025/mo_searchh.html [UPDATE: This link has expired.]

Nathan Power
http://PayPerClickSearchEngines.com
Highly cost-effective, targeted advertising