- The refunds represent only a small portion of the original spending
- Ads shown through the search engine had garnered fraudulent traffic
- Spencer added that the meagre refunds had been paid back to advertisers
Google has issued refunds to hundreds of advertisers for
running ads on websites with fraudulent traffic generated by automated bots.
According to the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, the refunds
represent only a small portion of the original spending - 7 percent to 10
percent - since rest of the money has already been passed on to site owners and
middlemen.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, informed marketers and ad
agency partners that their ads shown through the search engine had garnered
fraudulent traffic generated by bots, which certainly would never click on
their ads they had paid for to be shown.
"Today, we can't disclose the information about third
parties. So when we aren't able to catch invalid traffic before it impacts our
advertisers and we're unable to refund their media spent, it hurts us, even if
we're not responsible," Scott Spencer, director of project management at
Google, was quoted as saying.
Spencer added that the meagre refunds had been paid back to
advertisers.
According to the report, the refunds primarily involved
video advertising and highlight a persistent issue that threatens the health of
commercial content online.
Google has geared up to resolve the issue. It is believed
that the search engine will provide more clarity over which tech providers in
the ad-buying chain are responsible for making the refunds.
