While the Web offers great opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike, its real value is also marred by fraud, malware and sockpuppetry.
A new study has found that a massive portion of mobile clicks on ads are actually worthless. This is according to mobile app marketing platform Trademob, which shared the findings of its most recent study with GigaOM, showing that 40% of mobile clicks on ads are the result of fraud or users clicking on ads by mistake.
According to Trademob, 22% of clicks are accidental, while 18% are fraudulent (up from 10% at the beginning of the year) - potentially one of the key stumbling blocks for the growth of mobile advertising. Trademob aggregates over 100 mobile ad networks and studied six million clicks worldwide over a six-week period earlier this year.
While some accidental clicks are simply that, Trademob notes that some shady marketers intentionally exploit the way users can easily click on the wrong link when using devices with small screens by placing big ads next to small buttons. Trademob's tracking technology helps it to identify so-called “bad publishers” that persistently have very low conversion rates after the click - these publishers are then added to the Trademob blacklist.
Fake Likes
These findings come as Facebook has also announced it is clamping down on fake “Likes” on the social network as it aims to position itself as a credible advertising platform.
Facebook is introducing improved automated methods to remove “Likes” gained through malware, compromised accounts, deceived users or purchased bulk likes. The practice of purchasing Likes - many of which are generated by fake Facebook user accounts - is something not allowed by Facebook.
The social network recently revealed in its 10-Q regulatory filing that as many as 83 million accounts on the platform are fake and set up for purposes that violate the social network's terms of service. The crackdown on fake likes will provide users and advertisers a more accurate measurement of the fan count for pages, as well as better demographics.
Reuters quotes Gartner analyst Brian Blau commenting on the crackdown: "I think what they're intending to do is get a handle on it before it gets really out of control. You can imagine no business wants to pay for advertising to fake accounts."
Facebook says: "While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes.”
A recent New York Times report on the prevalence of fake book reviews online, cites research by data-mining expert Bing Liu of the University of Chicago who estimates that about 33% of all online reviews are posted by people who have a financial incentive to praise the product in question.
According to Liu, such reviews can be posted by actual customers who are given a discount on the product in exchange for a positive review, marketers who write glowing reviews of their own products, or third-party paid reviewers.
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