Downstream harm
Advertiser budget drain on search partner networks
An advertiser's search budget is spent on partner sites they cannot see or would not choose, where clicks convert poorly.
How it works
When an advertiser buys search ads, a setting usually lets those ads also appear on the engine's search partner network: other companies' sites and apps that show its ads. This is the demand that funds search arbitrage. Most of it is ordinary. The harm arises when a meaningful share of budget flows to partner placements that are low quality, unsuitable for the brand, or inflated by the frauds described elsewhere on this page.
For years advertisers had little visibility of where partner clicks occurred and, in some campaign types, no way to opt out. This is the sum of every other type as experienced by the person paying. It is also why the rules keep tightening: when advertisers cannot see, they assume the worst and withdraw.
Who pays for it
Advertisers directly. Indirectly every honest partner: when advertisers switch partners off or bid them down, all partner traffic earns less.
Who does it, and why
Often nobody in particular: it is a by-product of weak transparency. Where it is deliberate, the actors are the fraudulent partners described in the other entries.
Warning signs
- Search-partner clicks with much lower conversion rates than clicks on the engine itself.
- Spend shifting towards partners without any change in settings.
- Brand ads reported on sites the advertiser has blocklisted elsewhere.
- Bursts of partner clicks that exhaust daily budgets early.
Defences
- Segment reports by network and compare cost per conversion for partners against the engine itself.
- Use partner placement reports and exclusions where the platform offers them.
- Opt out of partner or parked-domain inventory if it does not perform (advertiser opt-out).
- Publishers: assume advertisers are measuring you, and send traffic that converts.
An example
Real case: in November 2023 Adalytics reported Google search-partner ads for major brands and US government bodies on roughly 390 adult sites, more than 2,200 domains with piracy notices and sites in sanctioned countries. Google disputed the scale but temporarily let advertisers opt all campaigns out of search partners until 1 March 2024. Earlier, in 2017, Google paid $22.5 million to settle claims that it had placed ads on parked domains and error pages without clear disclosure.
Documented cases
- Adalytics: Google Search Partner Network findings (2023): Brand-safety and transparency research on where search-partner ads appear (not a fraud ring)
- In re Google AdWords Litigation (parked domains and error pages) (2017): Advertiser class action over undisclosed ad placement on parked domains and error pages
- Lane's Gifts & Collectibles v. Google (2006): Advertiser class action over being billed for fraudulent clicks
- Checkmate Strategic Group v. Yahoo (2006): Advertiser class action over click fraud on Yahoo (Overture) search ads