Click Fraud Rates Less Than 0.02%

Google reported that the rate of click fraud for which advertisers seek a refund represents less than 0.02% of all clicks. The company reported "every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone", thus is in the interest of Google to reduce this rate.

On the other hand ClickForensics puts the click fraud rate at 14.2%. However ClickForensics' rate is an overall average of click fraud across the search industry. The rate of click fraud across different ad industry sectors and different search providers varies widely. Those buying expensive keywords as triggers for their search ads, for example, are more likely to be targeted by click fraudsters than other advertisers. Also the second and third tier search engines with do not have Google's technology to detect nor correct these problems.


Also, ClickForensics and others that build their business model around this issue are not about to say that they are in a small and declining market. Then, there are others with inferior technology that are utilizing this issue as part of their marketing strategy.

The bottom line is search marketing is the most effective medium to reach customers and even if the rate of errors is 14% it is better than displace where there is little relevance and metrics.