Click Fraud Class Action - Update

The refunds, which will be provided in the form of advertising credits, are meant to compensate Google's customers for undetected click fraud, which contributed to the $13.3 billion in ad revenue that has poured into the company since 2001.

Google's offer works out to a $4.50 refund on every $1,000 spent in its vast advertising network over the past 4¼ years. More...

Automated methods of click fraud can never be perfect. If Google were to release their precise techniques, fraudsters would learn how to get away with it.

I believe Google should provide every advertiser with a record of the clicks they paid for - date/time, which site or search engine, which keyword, and which IP address. That way Google could avoid telling us their precise techniques, but would allow us to make claims based on our own observations.

I can think of two reasons why Google would not do this:

1) Giving us keyword data would help us choose better negative keywords, and smart advertisers could spend up to 50% less than they do now.

2) Google doesn't have to.