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Google announced in March that a settlement had been agreed upon in the class action click fraud suit brought against the company by Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles, et. al. The total settlement for $90 million is to cover all advertising in Google AdWords from January 2002 to the present. It is estimated that approximately $30 million of this settlement will go to lawyers and fees. This settlement was recently approved by an Arkansas District Court Judge and the settlement is in place barring any legal action to block. Google AdWords Advertisers have until August 4th to state their intent to be part of this settlement.

Blizzard’s Jill Trujillo first wrote about this settlement back in March. As the submission deadline rapidly approaches, we’d like to supply more information.

We at Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. have carefully researched the situation and have come to the conclusion that for the most part, our promotional plan clients will not benefit from this settlement. We have outlined our reasoning below:

• Our primary position is that the hospitality industry has not been a target of click fraud in the way that many other industries have been. This is because the hospitality market does not have the saturation and competition that some other industries have, such as Real Estate, Law and Mortgage/Refinance.
• By and large, the terms that we are bidding on in the hospitality industry are just not expensive enough to attract one of the two major types of click fraud. It is extremely rare when a hospitality search term tops $5.00, which is considered by some to be the low threshold for click fraud consideration. This rules out the practice of using click fraud to make money, also known as Affiliate Click Fraud.
• While competitors who use click fraud to deplete your budget and thereby remove your ads from Google can never be completely eliminated, it is unlikely this is a common problem for our clients. This is known was Competitive Click Fraud.
• The settlement will be paid out on a percentage basis. This probably makes it ineffective for the vast majority of our clients for two reasons:

• The total spend on Google AdWords of the majority of our clients would be very small in comparison to the very expensive and competitive industries.
• According to click fraud experts ClickTracks, the average settlement is likely to be $4.50 per $1,000.00 spent with Google AdWords. This means you would need to have spent $10,000.00 with them to get back $45.00, or $100,000 to receive a $450 settlement.

• The vast majority of our clients don’t employ Google’s content match feature, which is one of the major ways that click fraud occurs.

For these reasons, we have come to the conclusion that it would cost most of our clients more to pay us to fill out the necessary forms and submit them than they would receive back in advertising credits. We will, however, be assessing this for our clients; those who will benefit will be submitted by their Promotion Account Management team.

If you realize that it is not cost effective to have us submit you to the class action suit, but would like to submit yourself, you can go to the official Click Settlement website and submit the easy form. You will need to submit the following information:

• Google AdWords Account Number & Login E-mail address
• Claimant first & last name, along with email address & daytime phone number
• Title and position of person submitting the form (i.e. – general manager, marketing contact, etc.)
• The total amount you spent in AdWords from January 1, 2002 to the present
• The percentage of the “claimant’s” total advertising expenditures associated with keywords that you believe were affected by click fraud.

Google is dedicated to combating click fraud. If you would like to read more on the settlement or about Google’s stance on click fraud please visit the Official Google Blog.

Russ Cabe, Promotion Department Manager - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.

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