According to the industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures released by Click Forensics Inc. , the overall Industry click fraud rate has dropped in Apr-Jun 2009 quarter(Q2 2009).
In Apr-Jun 2009 quarter, while 13 out of every 100 clicks were fraudulent; in the previous quarter (Jan-Mar 2009) this number was about 14. But both these figures are much better than Apr-Jun 2008 quarter last year; when 16 out of every 100 clicks were fraudulent.
Overall industry average click fraud rate for Q2 2009___________12.7%
Overall industry average click fraud rate for Q1 2009___________13.8%
Sequential Drop (QoQ)_________________________________ Eight percent
Overall industry average click fraud rate for Q2 2008_______ 16.2%
Drop in Q2 2009 compared to Q2 2008 (YoY)___________Twenty Two percent
The key findings of the industry pay-per-click (PPC) fraud figures for the second quarter 2009 are as under:
-- The overall industry average click fraud rate in Q2 2009 has come down (12.7 percent) when compared to Q1 2009 (13.8 percent) and Q2 2008 (16.2 percent).
-- Publisher Collusion Fraud Remains a Significant Threat to Ad Networks.
-- Click fraud traffic from sophisticated sources and scripted programs rose again in Q2 2009.
-- Many of the new click fraud schemes identified last quarter continue to increase in number and sophistication in Q2 2009 as well.
Some explanations:
Why Click fraud exists:
Click fraud, which is also called pay-per-click (PPC) fraud ; is said so as the primary objective of these fraudulent clicks is to inflate the pay-per-click revenue of the publisher (blogger etc.). In pay-per-click internet advertising model, advertisers give ads to publishers, which the latter show on their blogs, websites etc. The advertisers pay their host (publisher) only when their(advertiser) ad is clicked. Thus a publisher is paid for every click. Increase in number of clicks means increase in revenue.
In an ideal environment, only good content should bring readers to a publisher; resulting in an increase in the number of ad clicks. But the world is hardly ideal. As a result fraudulent practices are adopted to increase/inflate the number of clicks on the ads. Sometimes this takes a human approach, in which a publisher makes a network of people and asks them to click on the ads displayed at his publication for some incentive (generally monetary). In other cases(most prevalent), publishers use technology (sophisticated sources and scripted programs) to inflate the number of clicks.
Publisher collusion is not the only source of Click Frauds. Others who resort to the fraud are:
-- A rival company carrying on malicious clicking on competitor's ads in order to deplete a competitor's advertising budget and misguide it.
-- Ad networks (a company that acts as a link between web sites that want to host advertisements i.e. publishers; and advertisers who want to run advertisements)sometimes resort to click frauds in order to prove the efficacy of their ad networks to the advertisers.
Although Click frauds help some ,they result in losses for the advertisers. --------