Have you ever clicked on a link on a Webpage just as the browser reshuffled elements on the page, so that you inadvertently clicked an ad? I have, although a simple click of the back button is all it takes me to return me to the page. But the advertiser, who pays per click with programs like Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network, has been saddled with the cost of my clumsiness.

Since a lot of what’s categorized as click fraud could be due to butterfingered clicking, Google has made a tweak to AdSense in an effort to reduce the number of clicks which will convert poorly for advertisers. Google has confined the clickable region in AdSense ads to the link itself; previously, the entire boxed region could be clicked.

In addition to waging an ongoing battle with fraudster publishers, Google most certainly has to make a concession to advertisers, who, faced with ever-increasing bid prices for placement, have begun to wonder if they could be getting a better deal with Google’s competitors. It’s a small but important gesture that Google only wants its advertisers to pay for genuinely interested leads, instead of those who accidentally stumbled upon an ad intimately embedded in content.

Here’s an illustration of the change:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 1:02 am and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.