Online Advertising Survival: Combating Click Fraud - University of ...

advertisers. In turn, the third party auditing companies have been accused of reportingfictitious fraudulent clicks in order to sell their services. Advertisers are not alwaysknowledgeable or technologically savvy. There is mutual distrust between advertisers,third parties and the search engines. Therefore, there is a need for an independent bodyto police the online advertising industry in order to provide verifiable results toadvertisers.The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) may be such organization. ABC is theindependent group charged with policing circulation for newspapers and magazines.ABC issued a survey in February 2007, Online Accountability: Gauging the GrowingDemand for Audited Web Metrics.Their key findings are as follows:o Eighty-three percent of respondents plan to increase online ad spending in 2007; morethan half expected double digit budget increases,o Only Forty-seven percent of advertising agencies and thirty-three percent ofadvertisers are confident that their online ad impressions are measured and reportedaccurately,o Sixty-eight percent said they would prefer to advertise on Web sites audited by anindependent third party.9.3 Certified Identification TechnologiesEach third party has their own techniques and proprietary software likely based upon thesame general principles and standards. In order for the click fraud measurement to beverifiable, consistent, comparable and objective, there needs to be an agreed upon35