Click Fraud Up Year-Over-Year
ADOTAS – Click fraud was down slightly this quarter compared to last quarter, Click Forensics reports. In its third annual Click Fraud Index, the company measured pay-per-click fraud figures gathered from the Click Fraud Network, comprised of more than 4,000 interactive advertisers and agencies.
The average click fraud rate was 16.3%, down a tad from 16.6% in the last quarter of 2007 – but up significantly from 14.8% in the first quarter of last year.
Search engine content networks – like Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network – delivered the worst numbers, with click fraud rates of 27.8%. The numbers reflect a slight decrease from the fourth quarter of 2007, which saw rates of 28.3%, but fraud spiked year-over-year, from 21.9% in the first quarter of 2007.
The greatest percentage of fraudulent clicks came from outside North America: the highest rates came from Monaco (3.1%), Ghana (3.1%) and New Caledonia (2.4%).
Yahoo and Google have both shelled out millions on click-fraud related suits.
Yahoo is currently being sued by online retailer Bigreds.com for $1 million; the lawsuit alleges that Yahoo knowingly overcharged the company for fraudulent clicks Yahoo overlooked. And Google is involved in a class-action lawsuit filed by Kabateck Brown Kellner in which the search titan is accused of “deceiving its customers into paying for ads they don’t want.”
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At a fraud rate of 16-17%, it’s a wonder that more advertisers don’t scream “bloody-murder” at Yahoo and Goggle. My Denver real estate and mortgage business used to spend $3,000 to $4,000 a month on PPC from 2004 to March of 2007. Now we spend $0, putting our money and efforts into organic keyword placement - a far cheaper alternative!
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