Industry PPC click fraud reaches 15% in Q2 2007

According to a recent report by Click Forensics, pay-per-click click fraud reached a rate of 15% for the second quarter of 2007. The Click Forensics report taken from the Click Fraud Index;  which monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network™, which more than 4,000 online advertisers and agencies have joined; showed the following trends:

• Average Click Fraud rate on Search Engine Content Networks was 25.6% including Google Adsene and Yahoo Publisher Network. This was up from 21.9% in Q1 2007 and 19.2 in Q4 2006
• Traffic from botnets doubled between Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 2007.  According to Robert Hanson, CEO of SecTheory - “”We’re not surprised to see the industry average click fraud rate climb this quarter as a result of botnet activity,” and “Our clients are well aware that botnet activity is on the rise and that botnets are being used for a variety of online fraud activities, including click fraud.
• The greatest percentage of PPC click fraud occurred from North America, China (3.2%), France (5.1%) and Australia (3%)
• The overall industry average click fraud rate was 15.8 percent for Q2 2007. This is an increase from 14.1 percent for the same quarter in 2006 and 14.8 percent for Q1 2007.

To read the full Click Forensics release, click here

1 comment July 23rd, 2007

ITV to partner with Google?

Thought I would join in with the fun being had by other reknowned industry experts such as Andrew Girdwood (from BigMouthMedia), by entering the ‘whose joining forces with who’ debate. According to a report on the Guardian website, ITV is close to signing a deal with Google to provide search services across the ITV.com website.

The deal would see Google replace Yahoo as the preferred search provider once the new website is complete, which has been earmarked as the end of July (a relaunch which is rumoured to be costing around £20 Million and is attempting to monetise the site beyond the traditional display and sponsorship advertising.

The deal is interesting for UK Search Engine Marketing as it could pave the way for further partnerships such as branded channels on Google owned Youtube (similar to the deal between the BBC and Youtube in March)

ITV is in the process of completing a staged rollout of the new ITV.com website, with simulcasts already available, and a 30-day catch up and archive video-streaming service will be activated on a week-by-week basis.

Neither ITV nor Google were available for comment on the potential partnership.

1 comment July 23rd, 2007