Click Fraud Rate Drops 20%, But Gets More Sophisticated

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 by Andy Beal

Click Fraud Rate Drops 20%, But Gets More Sophisticated

When your business relies on an increasing trend in click fraud, what do you do when the bottom drops out of the numbers?

That’s the predicament facing Click Forensics as its fourth year of providing its Click Fraud Index shows a dramatic drop in the average industry click fraud rate. The fourth quarter of 2008 was all gloom and doom, with the rate climbing to 17.1%, but the first quarter shows a drop to 13.8%–that’s about a 20% decline.

Never fear, there’s bottom line to protect, so Click Forensics gets granular and explains that while overall click fraud may have dropped, what’s there is getting more sophisticated.

One new type of fraud discovered this quarter was perpetrated by malicious scripts that execute when a visitor views a web page disguised as relevant content or search results. The script initiates “Zero-iframe” or off-screen clicks that route the visitor session through an alias referrer website, and on to unsuspecting advertisers who pay for the phantom click. All this occurs transparently to the offending site’s visitor; they never see the ad or visit the advertiser, and their computer is not infected with any type of malware or botnet.

Before we all panic over this, keep in mind this is very likely an isolated incident as it was only just discovered "this quarter." That said, you have to tip you hat to Click Forensics for being able to identify such a complex case of click fraud.

I guess the big question is whether this drop is a blip or a trend? Are you seeing a drop in click fraud on your paid search campaigns?

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4 comments on “Click Fraud Rate Drops 20%, But Gets More Sophisticated”

Peter Paulson Says:

April 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 am

This is certainly not isolated, we have seen it on our site in a massive way. It seems hard to get rid of.
Andreas Nurbo Says:

April 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 am

If Click Forensics only found out about this now they don’t do much forensics.
The trick is very old and have existed since JS and IFrame was invented. Its also a good way to boost your visitor numbers.
I’ve used it also sometimes but for a totally different reason.

If you want to be complex you also use a proxy and visit sites with various random IP adresses and mimic a users click behavior. Boosts your “visitors” and your ad income. If you have a big AdSense network it can generate some income.

Andreas Nurbo’s last blog post..What is automatic blogging?
Lamarky Says:

April 24th, 2009 at 5:54 pm

with certainty to get more sophisticated and much more rewarding.

Lamarky’s last blog post..Download – Curso INFO – Rede Wi-Fi
Search Engine Marketing News - April 27, 2009 | SageRock Digital Marketing Blog Says:

April 27th, 2009 at 11:04 am

[...] Click Fraud Rate Drops 20%, But Gets More Sophisticated One new type of fraud discovered this quarter was perpetrated by malicious scripts that execute when a visitor views a web page disguised as relevant content or search results. The script initiates “Zero-iframe” or off-screen clicks that route the visitor session through an alias referrer website, and on to unsuspecting advertisers who pay for the phantom click. All this occurs transparently to the offending site’s visitor; they never see the ad or visit the advertiser, and their computer is not infected with any type of malware or botnet. [...]

Marketing Pilgrim