Mark Cuban: Agree or Disagree

I first met Mark Cuban in 2000 right after he bought the Mavs.  He was speaking at an industry conference in Dallas and was talking about “stupid technology company names”.  We had just launched a company and when I told him our name, he laughed and approved.  Five years later, when we named Click Forensics, I recalled his advice and tried to avoid naming it after a Greek god or some other random seven-letter name that happened to be available.  He has yet to comment on our name specifically,  but he did mention Click Forensics in a recent blog on click fraud.  While he never fixed the dead link to the Click Fraud Index, he did have some interesting takes on the topic.

Cuban said, “The concept of “I know some percentage of my PPC advertising is click fraud, I just don’t know home much” shouldn’t be acceptable.”  We agree and that is why we have created a company solely focused on solving the industry problem of click fraud.  In his more recent post, “Why I think click fraud is far greater than imagined”, he boldly states, “…no amount of IP repetition algorithms are going to stop them.”  Once again we agree.  In fact, nothing is going to stop them.  The solution is police the activity and report on discrepancies.  Once these unwanted clicks are identified, there needs to be a way to reconcile them so advertisers aren’t stuck with the bill.  Keep blogging Mark, you have friends in high places.  This is an industry issue that needs guys like you to speak the truth.  

So what do I disagree with Cuban on?  Well, Click Forensics is based in San Antonio; we have season tickets, know several players and even have a room in our office called the “Spurs room”.  I grew up in Dallas but left before the Mavs were born.  While I root for the home team, Cuban is good for Dallas, good for the NBA, good for the online community and even good for San Antonio.  Next year…

So Mark, after you get your ring (and you will) drop by to see us in SA.  We can celebrate your victory on the Riverwalk, eat at a Dairy Queen and talk click fraud in our Spurs room!  Ciao~

Dr. Tuzhilin Visits Click Forensics

Click Forensics has been working with Dr. Alexander Tuzhilin from NYU to further enhance our rating engine and statistical modeling approach. Dr. Tuzhilin visited with the Click Forensics’ team in San Antonio last week. The company has a goal of producing reports with the highest degree of accuracy in the industry.

[caption id="attachment_693" align="alignright" width="248" caption="Dr. Tuzhilin works with the Click Forensics executive team at the San Antonio headquarters"][/caption]



Dr. Tuzhilin said,

"Click Forensics has good data and this is a source of their advantage over the search engines. My role is to work with them to refine the scoring methodology to improve accuracy. Their approach is to incorporate as much data as possible to improve accuracy. The search providers simply don't have enough data to have the most accurate approach."

The work of Dr. Tuzhilin has helped Click Forensics build a road map for the future.  We appreciate his insight and expertise and look forward to working with him for years to come.

Click Fraud Network Update

Since the launch of Click Fraud Network on March 1^st, the Network has grown rapidly.  Literally hundreds of of the top advertisers in the pay per click space have joined and we are adding members daily.  This is important for two reasons:  First, click fraud continues to be a serious problem.  A recent CNET article noted that despite the proposed settlement with Google, click fraud is not going to go away anytime soon.  Secondly, there is strength in numbers.  As our Network builds, so will the clout of our members in working towards solutions.  As I have pointed out for some time, the problem of click fraud is bigger than one company or search provider… it is an industry wide issue.

I want to take a moment and provide you some feedback from the Click Fraud Index and share some recent updates.  The overall “high threat level” click rate is leveling off.  As the number of advertisers increases in the Network, we are seeing this number settle down to around 14% of all clicks from all categories.  Tier 1 search providers have a significantly lower threat level than those in Tiers 2 and 3.  This would make sense because they have more internal resources to focus on the problem.  While this is good news it still means that click fraud could account for over $750,000,000 in 2006.  The search providers simply do not have the data available to resolve this issue.  There is a growing call for an independent third party to validate clicks in the same way the Nielsen, Arbitron and the ABC exist in traditional media.  We will be commenting more on this topic in the coming weeks.

Another interesting development has been the spyware issues relating to affiliates sites as pointed out by Ben Edelman.  (His comprehensive studies have validated what we have been watching for a long time)  Affiliate networks can be a risky place to advertise without a monitoring tool in place.  This issue will grow more complex as time goes by and technologies advance.  The exposure and opportunity for click fraud using spyware, bots and organized “clickers” is a real threat that is increasing daily.

We are thrilled by the response to the Click Fraud Network and that so many of you are taking advantage of our CF Analytics tool, offered to advertisers at no charge.  I hope you will encourage others to “Join the Network”

Plan to visit us at the upcoming AdTech show in San Francisco April 26^th to 28^th.  We are exhibiting at booth #6366.  I am also looking forward to being part of the Click Fraud panel discussion lead by Jessie Stricchiola on Thursday April 27^th at 3:15 PM.  I hope to see you all there for some lively discussion!

Best regards,

Tom