Click Fraud Reaches New High, Says Click Forensics

Click Forensics has updated its Click Fraud Index with data from the fourth quarter of 2006, reporting an overall industry average click fraud rate of 14.2 percent versus 13.8 percent for Q3, 14.1 percent for Q2 and 13.7 percent for Q1. The Click Fraud Network collects data from more than 3,000 online advertisers and their agencies running campaigns for both large and small companies.

Other findings include:

• 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 PPC 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.

More stats from this release.