RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pitfalls and Fraud In Online Advertising Metrics
JF Journal of Advertising Research
JO J Advert Res
FD WARC
SP 127
OP 132
DO 10.2501/JAR-54-2-127-132
VO 54
IS 2
A1 Benjamin Edelman
YR 2014
UL http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/54/2/127.abstract
AB 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.