If networks and sites just let the clicks pass through, advertisers will just adjust their bids down. They are going nowhere b/c they can’t find advertising this cheap anywhere else…..even with a bunch of fraud clicks involved. Now, making the pubishers happy with less per click b/c of all the fraud passed though is another story, but for advertisers they can suck it up.

It actually makes perfect sense for Facebook to say they are not liable. They then don’t have liability, don’t have to spend countless financial and manpower resources to combat click fraud, countless advertiser inquiries over clicks….even down to five or ten click level, etc…. It’s actually a competitive strength if your competitor is struggling to remove those clicks and you don’t have to remove every last one.

How many folks look at a TV, newpaper, or magazine ad…..or listen to a radio ad with absolutely NO intention of buying. Should their viewer/subscriber/listener stats be deducted from the monthly or yearly circulation form stats which are passed around by ad agencies or publications themselves passing off those numbers as actual potential buyers? Obviously some will never by buyers…….they might as well be bots…..you get the same result. It’s also the same with the Net.

It’s just that when you give an advertiser an inch they want to take a mile. And, with the Net ppc model advertisers can argue, with TV or radio they really can’t. What’s their alternative in the TV realm? Demand accountability?

If MacAfee and Nortons can’t get rid of all the viruses, what makes people think companies can get rid of all the fraud in ppc? They can’t, and never will be able to.

See http://www.muhimbi.com/blog/2010/02/using-google-adwords-on-content.html

Facebook has a looming credibility and trust issue coming in the form of a tsunami. I predict a class action or criminal lawsuit in the near future as a result of personal information breach. They are pushing everyone to the edge of their “social” tolerance of such a company.

Seems they borrowed from the Google mantra “Do no evil” – NOT!

With an increase in click-fraud by both publishers and competing advertisers I would hope that companies like Facebook would take the high-road and attempt to create technologies to detect and prevent fraud rather than language in their contract to simply protect themselves.

For a company like Google this is more relevant than any and I do hope they don’t follow in Facebook’s footsteps here.