Google detects Ad Fraud, Refunds Advertisors Money

New York Aug 29: A shock has been received.
Google has started issuing refunds for ads that ran on websites with fake traffic.

Sources say that the web giant has started developing a tool to give marketers more transparency about the ads they buy through its platform.

Experts say that in the past few weeks Google had informed hundreds of marketers and ad agency partners about the issue with invalid traffic, known in the industry as "ad fraud".

Currently, the ads were bought using the company's DoubleClick Bid Manager over the course of a few months this year, primarily in the second quarter.

Sources say that Google' s refunds amount to only a fraction of the cost of the ads served to invalid traffic, which has left some advertising executives unsatisfied.

The Company has offered to reimburse its "platform fee," which ad buyers said typically ranges from about 7% to 10% of their total purchase.The company says this is appropriate because it doesn’t control the rest of the money spent.

Currently fraudulent traffic is generated by

* Including those where clicks are generated by software programs known as "bots" instead of humans. This is an issue of growing concern to marketers.

* Some infect unsuspecting consumers computers with malware to form a "botnet" that clicks on ads on bogus sites.

* Fraudsters are often adept at covering their tracks, which can make their activity difficult to spot until after the event has occurred.

Currently, there is no mechanism to discover the issue instantly.Google said that is working on a fix it hopes, also working on technology to ensure advertisers automatically receive a full credit back from the company and its partners if incidents occur.

Let's hope that company finds a solution quickly so that Advertisers revenue is not Siphoned off.