Click Forensics released (pdf) industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the third quarter of 2007, saying its Click Fraud Index found that the average click fraud rate was 16.2% – but significantly higher among content networks.
Key findings from data reported for Q3:
- The overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.2% for 3Q07 – an increase from 13.8% for the same quarter in 2006 and from 15.8% in the second quarter of 2007.
- The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 28.1% in Q3.
- That’s up from 25.6% in the second quarter and 21.9% for the first quarter.
- That’s also up from 19.2% in the 4Q06.
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- Over 60% of traffic from parked domains and made-for-ad sites was click fraud.
- The greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside North America came from France (4.2%) China (4.1%) and Germany (3.7%).
“Click fraud activity continues to grow especially on made-for-ad sites, parked domains and on the content networks,” said Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics. “Advertisers, publishers and search engines need to take notice because content networks are becoming the fastest growing source of click fraud. Ensuring their quality is essential for the pay-per-click advertising market to continue its growth.”
About the data: The Click Fraud Index monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network, a third-party click fraud detection service, which more than 4,000 online advertisers and agencies have joined. Click fraud data is tracked and published on a quarterly basis for specific search providers, industries and trends. It monitors online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from search provider campaigns and the advertisers’ own websites.
