Estimating the Number of Genuine and Fraudulent Clicks in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model

14 Pages Posted: 31 Jan 2010

See all articles by Wendy Hui

Wendy Hui

University of Nottingham Ningbo, China

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

Hui, Wendy, Estimating the Number of Genuine and Fraudulent Clicks in the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model (January 29, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1544173 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1544173

Wendy Hui (Contact Author)

University of Nottingham Ningbo, China ( email )

199 Taikang East Road
Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100
China
+86 574 8818 0197 (Phone)

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