Click fraud rates for search advertising remain practically unchanged for the second quarter of 2008 according to ClickForensics. The overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.2 percent for Q2 2008. That’s down slightly from the 16.3 percent rate reported for Q1 2008 and up from the 15.8 percent click fraud rate reported for Q2 2007.

However the average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks such as Google AdSense and Yahoo’s Publisher Network, was 27.6 percent. That’s down from the 27.8 percent rate reported for Q1 2008 and up from the 25.6 percent average click fraud rate reported for Q1 2007.

Also this quarter the greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside North America came from China (4.3 percent), Russia (3.5 percent), and France (3.2 percent). “The methods used to commit click fraud have become increasingly more sophisticated and difficult to detect,” said Tom Cuthbert, president of ClickForensics. “The threat from botnets is the biggest concern as they have grown to cause over one quarter of all click fraud. Online advertisers should be extra vigilant in watching for traffic from botnets in their search marketing campaigns.”

The clickfraud reports data is gathered from the over 4,000 online advertisers and agencies.

Click Fraud Q1 2008