Report Indicates Rising Click Fraud

The rate of click fraud or fraudulent clicks on pay-per-click-based online ads has rose by 4% to 14.1 percents. This is according to the report by Click Fraud Index.
Click Fraud  is the  first and largest independent third-party service dedicated to helping advertisers, agencies and search providers monitor online advertising campaigns for click fraud free of charge.

The click fraud rate at top-tier search engines such as Google and Yahoo! is less at 12.1 percent. The rate rises to 21.3 percent at so-called Tier 2 search providers and 29.8 percent at Tier 3 search companies, according to the Index. Advertisers and independent analysts say having an independent third-party organization to gather data from advertisers and search engines is the best way to really assess and reduce click fraud.

 An analyst comments on the report:

 “These figures have to be vetted – how are they calculating the percentage, i.e. what does that represent?
For example, if 30% of the universe of all PPC clicks are fraudulent, and the publishers "catch" and don't bill for half of that 30%, then we would see 15% of advertiser traffic that is being billed for as fraudulent. Is that the figure they're talking about? Or, is the percentage of fraudulent clicks 15% of the entire universe of clicks? And if so, then what percentage of those clicks are being billed for, and what aren't?     Also, how are they defining "click fraud." So much methodology to vet.”

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