Report Shows Click Fraud at All Time High

PPC campaigns such as Google Adwords and Yahoo SM are a great addition to any online advertising campaign, so long as they are managed correctly. However advertisers always have to be a bit wary of the idea of click fraud infiltrating their campaigns, and that a fairly significant percentage of clicks to their sites are done with mal-intent.

As we’ve discussed previously, click fraud in comparison shopping is nearly non-existent. This may primarily be due to the fact that in PPC, the ones perpetrating the click fraud is also a beneficiary since they receive a portion of the advertisers spending–whereas in comparison shopping the only one monetizing on extra clicks are the shopping engines themselves–and you can imagine the PR nightmare that an engine would get if they were on the wrong side of click fraud.

A recent report by Click Forensics shows that click fraud is at an all time high:

The level of clickfraud is the highest the company has seen since it started monitoring for it in 2006, dashing our hopes that it might hold steady in 2008. The company recorded a rate of 16.3% in Q1 2008. Also alarming is the fact that over 30% of click fraud is now coming from automated bots – a 14% increase from last quarter and the highest rate Click Forensics has seen since it started collecting data.

Take it for what it’s worth, as the source of the study is a company that tries to minimize click-fraud for advertisers, but it’s worth noting that Google has had settlements of $90 million with advertisers because of click fraud in the past, indicating that is indeed a serious issue.

With the economy as it is and companies trying to cut costs as much as they can, click fraud provides yet another reason for online advertisers to worry.