No, there's no way, and yes, you can't. It's up to you to do the research, ask around, and pick a company you can trust.
But if they ALL do it this way, how can you do the research and pick a company you can "trust"? I mean seriously, all you are really doing is picking a company that you hope will give you a bit more than another, but TRUST has little to do with it, doesn't it?
And incidentally, it's pretty close to the same situation you'll get with AdSense, YPN or MSN adCenter ads.
This is kinda my point... and doesn't make any one of us feel any better. The only truth is that the lack of accountability is widespread and the "right" of these companies to withhold the information from us, THEIR producers.
For example, many MANY people were shocked and angry about one such publisher only paying for the 1st click and keeping the revenues from any subsequent clicks a visitor might make.
What, exactly, is the logic to this? They still charge the advertiser for the clicks only they just choose NOT to pass on the revenue share. Furthermore, none of us agreed to that policy in the TOS. They STOLE many thousands of dollars from each and every one of us every single day and their response? "Oh, well, we can and if you don't like it, go somewhere else".
Where else? Who else is doing this? Do we or will we ever know just how many clicks we are NOT getting paid for at all, let alone getting ripped from?
And oh yeah, there's the "ask these kinds of questions and we'll find a reason to ban your ass, without or without cause, you have no recourse".
Which is nothing short of blackmail and extortion. Seriously, what other industry (other than the Government) has this kind of carte blanche operational standard? They do whatever they want, don't have to tell us or explain to us or to prove anything to us and if we get to inquisitive, they cut off completely... Anyone???
I'm not saying Parked is bad... I mean, how would we every really know if they were? I'm just saying that it is really hard to believe and trust these companies that have no accountability, no proof and go out of their way to ensure that you will never know.
What is there to hide and why go through such extraordinary efforts to hide what they say is nothing to hide?
How about setting the bar a little higher, eh?
Why not include in our stats, what the advertiser paid, what source publisher is charging, what the PPC sub-distributor is charging and then our final take on the click? Why not? If we are to only get 2% of the click, then just say so and let us make up our mind if it's worth staying put.
I got two clicks a couple of days ago for .01 cent. Clicks are now 1/2 cent? I know that the advertiser is paying more than twice that. I looked at the keyword costs. Where's the rest of it going? Just say. Don't give us reason to doubt. Rate fluctuate, sure... I get that... but YOU KNOW what they are for that click, just POST IT in our stats. They have to have that data in order to asses the end click value anyway... so SHARE IT with us.
Is that really so much to ask? PPC companies have thousands of users, Millions of clicks a day, maybe even 10s of Millions of clicks a day... who knows? Do you?
If they skim off just a few pennies off the top of 100,000,000 clicks a month... what's that worth and is that motivation enough to just treat us like mushrooms (Keep us in the dark and feed us crap)?
Eventually, someone is going to take this to a legal sphere to demand representation and clarification. Then, regulation is going to happen and with that, the death of the industry. It's inevitable.
These companies can make it a whole lot easier on themselves to just be honest and transparent... if they can't, then I would question WHY and whether or not they have to much to loose at this point.
It's a conversation worth having.