谷歌巧解手機廣告“粗手指”誤點難題

????它是十年來最困擾業界的技術難題之一：用戶正在從臺式機和筆記本電腦轉向移動設備，但是移動廣告的市場表現卻慘不忍睹。在智能手機上賣廣告尤其困難，它們賣得比傳統電腦上的廣告便宜得多，而傳統電腦的廣告已經比印刷媒體和廣播的廣告便宜很多了?，F在谷歌公司（Google）認為它也許能部分地解決這個問題。

????今年8月，一項由一家移動廣告分析公司發布的研究發現，大約40%的移動廣告點擊都“毫無價值”，因為它們要么是誤點，要么是點擊欺詐。很難弄清這個數字有多精確（而開展這項研究的公司很希望這個數字越高越好），但可以肯定的是，由于存在這兩種類型的點擊，要衡量移動廣告的效果（以便借此搞清楚如何為其定價）幾乎是不可能完成的任務。

????針對這種所謂的“粗手指”問題——用戶劃動屏幕或點擊其他地方時出現了誤點，谷歌正打算采用一個簡單的解決辦法：彈出一個帶有“訪問此網站”字樣的確認鍵。

????這個辦法當然能減少廣告數量，但它也使合理點擊的比例提高了。谷歌還表示，它可以提升能夠帶來實際銷售的廣告所占的比例。由于谷歌是移動廣告領域的霸主，所以很可能眾多對手也會跟進采用類似辦法。

????兩年前，移動廣告市場是個可能帶來滾滾財源的金礦?，F在呢，各公司都被現實困住了手腳，跟這些尺寸較小的屏幕較上了勁。不過，它也確實揭示了移動廣告市場存在的挑戰，要讓這種廣告有效果，唯一的辦法就是在用戶和廣告之間樹立某種壁壘，不管這壁壘是多微不足道。

????譯者：清遠

????It is one of the chief tech conundrums of the decade: people are flocking away from desktops and laptops and toward mobile devices, but the mobile-ad economy is terrible. Selling ads on smartphones, in particular, is difficult, and they sell for much less than ads served to traditional computers, which already sell for much less than print and broadcast ads.?Google thinks it might have a partial solution.

????A?study released in August?by a mobile-ad analytics firm found that about 40% of mobile-ad clicks were "worthless" because of erroneous clicks and click fraud. It's hard to know how accurate that figure is (and the company that conducted the study had an interest in the number being as high as possible), but it's certainly the case that measuring ad effectiveness -- and therefore, knowing how to price ads -- is near-impossible for both reasons.

????Google (GOOG) is addressing the so-called "fat finger" problem -- people clicking by mistake when they meant to scroll or click something else -- with a simple solution: a confirmation button that pops up, reading "visit site."

????The solution, of course, decreases the number of ads that are served, but it increases the proportion of legitimate clicks. And, Google says, it increases the proportion of ads that lead to actual sales. Since Google is the biggest player in mobile ads, it seems likely that its competitors will end up doing something similar.

????Two years ago, the mobile ad market was?a potential Valhalla of profit. Now, companies are struggling with the realities of smaller screens. It surely says something about the challenges of the mobile ad market, though, that the only way to make it work is to erect a barrier, however small, between a consumer and an advertisement.