Publications
Publications
- June 2014
- Journal of Advertising Research
Pitfalls and Fraud in Online Advertising Metrics: What Makes Advertisers Vulnerable to Cheaters, and How They Can Protect Themselves
By: Benjamin Edelman
Abstract
How does online advertising become less effective than advertisers expect and less effective than measurements indicate? The current research explores problems that result, in part, from malfeasance by outside perpetrators who overstate their efforts to increase their measured performance. In parallel, similar vulnerabilities result from mistaken analysis of cause and effect—errors that have become more fundamental as advertisers target their advertisements with greater precision. In the paper that follows, the author attempts to identify the circumstances that make advertisers most vulnerable, notes adjusted contract structures that offer some protections, and explores the origins of the problems in participants' incentives and in legal rules.
Keywords
Measurement; Mismeasurement; Fraud; Invisible; Online Advertising; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Marketing Strategy
Citation
Edelman, Benjamin. "Pitfalls and Fraud in Online Advertising Metrics: What Makes Advertisers Vulnerable to Cheaters, and How They Can Protect Themselves." Journal of Advertising Research 54, no. 2 (June 2014): 127–132.