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2nd February 2007

Click Fraud: Is Google fighting the wrong battle?

By: Donna Bogatin | Source: blogs.zdnet.com

The Click Fraud Index monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network, which more than 3,000 online advertisers and their agencies have joined. The Network provides statistically significant Pay Per Click data collected from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies. Key findings from data reported for Q4 2006 include:

The overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.2 percent versus 13.8 percent for Q3, 14.1 percent for Q2 and 13.7 percent for Q1.

The average click fraud rate of Pay Per Click advertisements appearing on search engine content networks was 19.2 percent for Q4.

The industry average click fraud rate for high-priced search terms remained at 20.9 percent as it did in Q3 versus 20.2 percent in Q2. High-priced terms are defined as terms that cost over $2.00. These high-priced terms often make up the majority of an advertiser’s total spend.

The average Pay Per Click term cost for the top key terms across the five biggest search advertising industries – Retail, Financial Services, Health & Fitness, Technology, and Entertainment – for Q4 was $3.50. This compares to $3.92 in Q3, $4.51 in Q2 and $4.75 in Q1.