Google’s business manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, sat down with Andy Beal over at Marketing Pilgrim and showed him some pretty graphs that said click fraud only represents 2 percent of all clicks.
Andy then copied these graphs, posted them to his blog, and offered them as proof that click fraud is a relatively uncommon and/or detectable phenomenon. Sorry Andy, you done been had, son. All those graphs prove is that click fraud looks something like the death star.
Shuman’s job, after all, is public relations. And on the PR battlefield of hastily composed posts, unverified claims and general good will surrounding the world’s largest search engine, it looks like Shuman’s doing a good job.
I’m more inclined to believe recent reports suggesting that click fraud is growing. Not because I’m a cynic or out to bash Google, but because the financial incentive for click fraudsters only increases with every new AdSense publisher and every new AdWord bought.