Speaking of Click Fraud

Here’s a nice continuation to my blog post on click fraud associated online advertising. Apparently Microsoft is working on a new way to measure the effectiveness of online ads. “Engagement Mapping” attempts to take into account all the Internet interactions that lead a consumer to buy a product and give advertisers a more accurate assessment of how to plan a campaign online. You can read the article here.

Building intelligence into the network to help solve these types of problems is where Cisco can potentially help. One might argue that there isn’t enough money in the online advertising space. But the truth is that interactive advertising is expected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $147 billion in 2012 and account for 21 percent of total ad budgets by the end of that period, according to a Kelsey Group forecast released on Monday. That money is typically paid from businesses to ad providers like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft to the actual websites where these ads are seen. Reducing click fraud and improving the measurement of effectiveness means increasing margins to the ad providers.