| s a theory in law enforcement that goes | | | | 1. Advertisers have to take responsibility for |
| something like this: | | | | monitoring their own campaigns. If you don't |
| If someone breaks a window in a building, and it | | | | know it's happening, you can't take steps to stop |
| isn't fixed quickly, others will soon be broken. As | | | | it. |
| the evidence of neglect builds, vandals will be | | | | 2. Advertisers need to use the information they |
| more emboldened to break into the building and | | | | generate through their analytics to demand |
| commit more vandalism and eventually destroy it | | | | refunds from the PPC companies on a consistent |
| completely. | | | | basis. As long as the losses are minor compared |
| If, on the other hand, that window is promptly | | | | to the profits for the PPC companies, their |
| fixed, it discourages further crime because it is | | | | incentive for responding is limited. |
| clear that someone is watching the store. | | | | 3. Click fraud perpetrators have to be identified, |
| Further, if instead of just fixing the window, you | | | | actively pursued and penalized. Currently, modern |
| find the vandal and hold them accountable for it, a | | | | techniques that use proxies and 'zombie networks' |
| message goes out loud and clear: we're watching | | | | can make it almost impossible to identify and |
| and you will get caught. | | | | punish offenders. |
| The problem with the broken windows theory is | | | | Those are the three elements of the Broken |
| that it requires more than police action to put into | | | | Window theory that make it work - community |
| practice. If the community isn't involved in the | | | | action, official backing and action and penalizing |
| cleanup effort, the initiative fails. When the | | | | perpetrators. |
| community is drawn in to help police the | | | | The first element in combating click fraud as a |
| problems, to report them and to 'mind the store', | | | | community is in getting click fraud prevention and |
| so to speak, crime rates drop. | | | | tracking software into the hands of all advertisers. |
| This theory can be extended to police nearly any | | | | The difficulty of sifting through hundreds of pages |
| venue where there is unacceptable behavior - | | | | of data to make comparisons and weed out |
| including the problem of click fraud in the venue of | | | | patterns that signal click fraud is a daunting one |
| PPC advertising. At the moment, the PPC industry | | | | for most companies. |
| is like a vacant building with nobody watching the | | | | Click fraud detection software makes it almost |
| store. It's easy to enter fraudulent clicks. It's even | | | | painless - but can be expensive. Other parts of |
| easier to get away with it. At the moment, a | | | | the internet market have benefited from open |
| large percentage of advertisers leave the | | | | sourcing of software to manage content, |
| detection of fraudulent clicks up to the PPC | | | | manipulate graphics, and create communities and |
| provider - and the policy of most PPC providers is | | | | process payments. An open offering of free click |
| that they will provide refunds for proven click | | | | fraud prevention software will encourage |
| fraud upon request from the advertiser. | | | | advertisers to start monitoring their own logs and |
| What happens when: | | | | records and identify potential fraudulent clicks. |
| - The PPC provider's software detection methods | | | | In addition, an open offering encourages others to |
| don't catch the click fraud? | | | | modify and extend the software and make those |
| - The advertiser doesn't use fraud detection | | | | extensions available to the community at large. |
| software? | | | | With those monitors in place, the second part of |
| - The advertiser can't back up the claim of click | | | | the equation becomes more possible. When it's |
| fraud? | | | | easy for advertisers to identify and document |
| - The major players in the industry refer to the | | | | fraudulent clicks on their campaigns, it becomes |
| problem as 'negligible'? | | | | that much easier for them to demand refunds for |
| Simply put - the click fraudster gets away with it. | | | | those clicks. The third part is an outgrowth of |
| The rewards are enormous - estimates put the | | | | creating a community that actively works to |
| amount of money lost to click fraud in the range | | | | eliminate click fraud. |
| of billions of dollars annually. But the loss to any | | | | For the time being, click fraudsters are loose in a |
| individual advertiser is usually negligible, and even | | | | neighborhood of broken windows. With the right |
| Google sees refunding money to advertisers as | | | | tools, we can begin to repair the windows and |
| no more than the cost of doing business. | | | | create a community that makes it nearly |
| If we're ever going to put a dent in click fraud, | | | | impossible to get away with their tactics. |
| three things have to happen. | | | | |