In performance marketing(=KPIS are a)sales volume and b) Cost per action - CPA) it's very simple - you can't scam how much you've spent on ads. Also you can't scam how much you charged the traffic you've bought. Both figures are reported by your finance department with pretty much 100% precision.
Yes, you do have a challanging problem of attribution. But the spend and revenue figures are what matters at the end of the day. And neither of them has any area for scamming (let's ignore edge cases).
Disclosure: only skimmed through the article and my arguments above are just directed towards the headline. However credible and opinion leader the author - Rand Fishkin - is, the article itself at the first glance did not inspired me personally as a worthy my attentive reading time.
If you discredit the article's argument by the headline, what's the point? Everyone may do exactly that to your comment and opinion: at first glance it did not inspire me as worthy of my attentive reading time.
C'mon, this ain't reddit. Don't comment without reading.
Yes, you do have a challanging problem of attribution. But the spend and revenue figures are what matters at the end of the day. And neither of them has any area for scamming (let's ignore edge cases).
Disclosure: only skimmed through the article and my arguments above are just directed towards the headline. However credible and opinion leader the author - Rand Fishkin - is, the article itself at the first glance did not inspired me personally as a worthy my attentive reading time.