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.

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