Standards Group Developed For PPC Realm

A standards group has been created by Click Forensics to develop pay-per-click quality standards for the search marketing industry.

by Kristina Knight

The Click Quality Council will investigate invalid and fraudulent clicks, hopefully to cut down on click fraud throughout the industry. Advertiser confidence in PPC strategies has been steadily waning because of fraudulent claims. Business Week reports that click fraud has had a $1 billion impact on the industry each year.

“As an industry, we must define click fraud before we solve it,” said Jason Clement of Carat Fusion.” The group will also set up standards to determine what exactly a click is so that valid clicks can be counted and invalid, or fraudulent, clicks discarded.

More than 2,500 advertisers and agencies are currently part of the Click Fraud Network, the largest third-party group dedicated to helping to monitor online advertising campaigns. The CQC will develop standards to regulate the industry, which will then be used within other networks, such as the Click Fraud Network, to regulate campaigns.

“Our goal is to ensure that the voice of the online advertising community is heard when it comes to developing industry standards that will define click measurement guidelines,” said Kevin Embree, a Click Forensics board member. Embree will moderate the CQC.