Visual Knowledge

Report: Click Fraud Rises in Q2 & High-Priced Keywords Click Fraud Rate At 20.2%:
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- The overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.1 percent, slightly higher than the average of 13.7 percent for Q1
- The industry average click fraud rate for high-priced search terms was 20.2 percent. 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 industry average click fraud rate for companies running online advertising campaigns through:
o Tier 1 search providers, such as Yahoo! and Google, was 12.8 percent vs. 12.1 percent in Q1
o Tier 2 search providers was 20.3 percent vs. 21.3 percent in Q1
o Tier 3 search providers was 27.1 percent vs. 29.8 percent in Q1
- The average pay per click term cost for the top key terms across the five biggest search advertising industries – Retail, Financial Services, Health & Fitness, Technology, and Entertainment – for Q2 was $4.51. This compares to $4.75 from Q1.
- The greatest percentage of click fraud, over 88 percent, originated from within the U.S. and Canada. Outside North America, the greatest amount of click fraud originated from within India. Unwanted click activity originating from India increased 26 percent during Q2.

“One of the most interesting findings from our Q2 data was the difference between the overall average industry click fraud rate and the click fraud rate for the most expensive search terms,” said Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics, LLC. “For the first time, we have industry data that clearly shows what many have expected – organizations purchasing higher-priced search terms are significantly more vulnerable to click fraud...”