Click Fraud has reversed an upwards trend to fall for the first time in Q2 2008, with the overall click fraud rate dropping 1.8%. Click Fraud occurs in pay per click advertising when a person or script imitates a regular web user by clicking on an ad in order to cost the advertiser money.

The graphs below indicate the overall click fraud trends according to Click Forensics:

While the overall click fraud rate has risen from the same time last year - the decline may be an indication Google and Yahoo! are making efforts to filter out ‘fake’ clicks and improve the overall quality of their programs. According to Tom Cuthbert, president of Click Forensics:

“Our Q1 2008 data bears out what industry analysts have suspected for several months - Yahoo! and Google seem to be finally filtering out more of the click fraud and non-converting traffic they used to let through,” … “Removing some of these higher-profile abusers appears to be having an effect on lowering the click fraud rates. If advertisers, publishers and ad networks continue to take proactive steps to filter out this lower quality traffic, the click fraud rate could trend downward even further, and that’s good news for the entire industry.”

Google in particular have made a few changes over the past year to actively prevent click fraud which included reducing the clickable area in their AdSense ad units. This news is great for online advertisers who can rest easy knowing that advertising platforms are working hard to prevent this type of fraudulent activity.

If you’d like to get started with online advertising, but don’t want to worry about issues like click fraud, why not try our Easy Search Advertising program. Your campaign is run by advertising professionals who live and breathe online advertising to ensure you get the best return for your money!