Hundreds of advertisers and ad agencies on Google’s advertising network were recently notified about this fake traffic ad fraud that might have affected their results. Google has now issued refunds to the companies affected. However, the officials at the advertisers’ end are rather dissatisfied as they have received only a fraction of what they paid for the ads.
The fake traffic that Google has detected for these advertisers was mostly concentrated around the second quarter of this year. Google has refunded only their ‘platform fee’ to the companies affected by ad fraud and fake traffic. The platform fee that Google charges the advertisers is usually 7% to 10% of the total cost. The director of product management for Google, Scott Spencer stated that Google has issued all the refunds. However, when asked for a figure estimate, he declined to comment on the amount being returned. Reportedly, some users who received these refunds from Google stated that the amount Google has refunded ranges from “less money than you would spend on a sandwich” to hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Today, we can’t disclose the information about third parties,” Mr. Spencer said. “So when we aren’t able to catch invalid traffic before it impacts our advertisers and we’re unable to refund their media spend, it hurts us, even if we’re not responsible.” However, while they might be returning a very small percentage of the amount, it is still good to see Google owning up that there indeed was fake traffic and an ad fraud and that they are taking active measures to ensure the quality of their services. Source: Wall Street Journal
