Content networks see largest increase in click fraud

It isn't just paid search advertisers that are feeling the pinch from click fraud. Content networks are also feeling the pinch. According to a recent Click Forensics report, click fraud on content networks increased 28% in Q3 2007.

by Kristina Knight

Just over one in four ads running on content networks like Google's AdSense or Yahoo's Publisher Network were fraudulent in the quarter according to the report.

Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics said, “Advertisers, publishers and search engines need to take notice because content networks are becoming the fastest growing source of click fraud. Ensuring their quality is essential for the pay per click advertising market to continue its growth.”

Traffic quality on content networks has also been shown to be decreasing. Parked domains are part of the problem, according to the report.

Overall, click fraud was shown to have increased only about 1% during Q3. The average click fraud rate was just over 16% during the quarter, up from 15.8% in Q2. For Q3 2006 the click fraud rate was reported as 13.8%.

What this means for marketers using paid search or pay-per-click ads is that the source of traffic from the ads needs to be checked as well as the keywords purchased. The best keywords for a particular product could be purchased from the legitimate PPC ad platform, but if the traffic being brought in isn't legitimate or if the traffic is poor, advertisers won't see the kind of ROI they would like.

Tags: click fraud, paid search, PPC advertising

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