Estimating the Number of Genuine and Fraudulent Clicks in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model
14 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2010
Date Written: January 29, 2010
Abstract
A simple method that is immune to click fraud is proposed to estimate the number of fraudulent and genuine clicks. It involves the use of web bugs and it relies on the assumption that all genuine clicks come from converted users (i.e., users who have made a predefined action, such as a purchase or a subscription). The implications of the violation of this assumption are discussed. The contribution of the paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to estimate the number of fraudulent clicks without an operationalization of click fraud, as suggested by Tuzhilin (2006).
Keywords: Click Fraud, Pay-Per-Action, Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Marketing
JEL Classification: Z00
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation