Google API: which to use for my own PPC solution?

Question

I am going to develop a site that allow advertisers to post their products/services. Each product/service will have a link back to the advertiser's site. I plan to implement a pay-per-click business model.

Is there a Google API I can use to keep track of the clicks to the advertiser's listings? I'm interested in a solution that already captures all sort of metrics, detect click frauds, etc. I also want to provide advertisers reports about their ads.

One possible solution, I think, is to use Google Analytics. Since I will store in my database the link back to the advertiser's site, I suppose I could use the "exit" information from Analytics to determine how many users clicked on the advertiser's link. Is this a good solution or is there a better one?

Answer 1

You could track the event using the trackEvent feature of the Google Analytics API:

• http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html

However this would only give you simple information. The problem with trying to rely on a javascript api solution is that not all users will have javascript enabled. This is not enough accuracy for a paid service.

If you expect customers to pay for this service you are going to need to implement a server side solution. This means that every external link would be replaced by a link to a redirect script. The script would forward you on to the actual site but as it was doing so it would register the click and information about the user such as their IP address etc.

With this information you can then use it to detect patterns like multiple clicks from an IP in a short period, or things like a click every day, or whatever patterns you decide.

It might be worth looking into this to see if there is an off the shelf solution which will take away the hassle from having to learn about click fraud detection.