This is a great article from eMarketer discussing an increasingly important phenomenon… Click Fraud.  Many Search Marketing (SEM/PPC) firms out there use something called “automated bid management.”  The problem with these automated systems is that they react only to activity, they’re not looking at the posibilitiy of fraud, etc.  It is important, in my opinion, that only a mix of custom developed automated tools and human monitoring can succeed in today’s volatile marketplace.

Marketing Vox had an article on this topic at the end of January, as well.

Well, it’s happened.  The analytics company is “in bed” with the “big agency.”  Who’s looking out for the client?  Almost 10y ago I led a team to build the first ever (that we knew of) metrics system that delivered behavior based targeting as well as analytics for one of our clients.  The client asked, “why should I trust your numbers,” and we used a 3rd party to validate our results for them.  Now, the 3rd party is just another shill for the agency… Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it,… and in the case of client’s demanding lower fees and more services, this is the kind of thing that happens.