Click fraud still rising

Click Forensics, a US monitoring service for advertisers, said a "Click Fraud Index" it had compiled using data gathered from more than 1,300 online advertisers, showed bogus clicks increased from 13.7 per cent in the first quarter to 14.1 per cent in the second, although Google says its technology manages to recognise many of the bogus clicks. It does not charge advertisers for them or later grants them refunds.

However, the research suggest that top search engines such as Google and Yahoo have lower click-fraud rates - 12.8 per cent, compared to 20.3 and 27.1 per cent for second and third-tier search providers. The average pay-per-click search-term cost was $4.51 across retail, financial services, health and fitness, technology and entertainment advertising and click fraud was higher for terms costing over $2 per click - at 20.2 per cent. (Source: Financial Times)