Q2 Click Fraud Rate Declines
Today we announced the pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for Q2 2009. The data comes from the Click Fraud Index. Traffic across more than 300 ad networks is also reflected in the data.
Key findings from data reported for Q2 2009 include:
- The overall industry average click fraud rate was 12.7%. That’s down from 13.8% for Q1 2009 and from the 16.2% rate reported for Q2 2008.
- Click fraud traffic from sophisticated sources and scripted programs rose again in Q2 2009. This included a rise in the incidents of publisher collusion fraud on ad networks.
The data in Q2 also showed that many of the new click fraud schemes identified last quarter continue to increase in number and sophistication. Publisher collusion fraud was one example. This scheme occurs when online publishers use rotating IP-addresses or botnets to click ads on their own sites in order to generate inflated commissions from unprotected ad networks. Ad networks have difficultly differentiating such attacks from valid clicks.
Tags: ad networks, Click Fraud, Click Fraud Index, PPC, publisher collusion
July 27th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Click fraud is getting very tricky now days. It seems like when someone figures out a way to halt one scheme, another more elaborate one comes out. Online advertising companies have to really stay on top of things to maintain good standing with their clients and keep ahead of the corruption.
It’s great that the average rate went down but I think it’s kind of scary that scripted program sourced fraud actually went up. That’s the most dangerous instance of click fraud in that it can be done in high volume. You have to believe that advertising companies will live or die by their ability to counteract.
eZanga has done a nice job and seems to be really finding its stride in the business. It’s no coincidence that they also have a pretty good fraud detection service in their “Traffic Advisers” filter system. It helps eliminate false clicks as they happen with advanced technology that dictates user patterns and detects and turns away automated machines that just click and click.
September 18th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Although there are wide discrepancies over what percentage of search each company gets, Google receives between four to twenty times more search traffic than Microsoft and three to five times more search traffic than Yahoo, combined and assuming no market disruption– the two companies would still only generate one fourth to one half the search business of Google.