AFP - As Paris wound up a frenetic fortnight of fashion shows, hip social networking site MySpace announced the launch of a new fashion channel offering a showcase for designers and fashion makeovers for users.

Click Fraud Increases On Search Ads

Click fraud has been the bane of contextual advertisers, with illicit clicks taking away from their budgets while search engines and fraudsters profit. The search engines have procedures in place to handle requests for reimbursement, but few agree on just how much goes on in the industry.

Here are the essential numbers from the Click Fraud Index as cited by Click Forensics for Q4 2006:

•  The overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.2 percent versus 13.8 percent for Q3, 14.1 percent for Q2 and 13.7 percent for Q1.

•  The average PPC term cost for the top key terms across the five biggest search advertising industries - Retail, Financial Services, Health & Fitness, Technology, and Entertainment - for Q4 was $3.50. This compares to $3.92 in Q3, $4.51 in Q2 and $4.75 in Q1.
“The industry average click fraud rate climbed to its highest level in 2006 and that the click fraud rate for affiliate sites was significantly higher than the overall industry average,” said Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics. “The data confirms what other recent independent investigations have uncovered about click fraud.”

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Tag: Click Fraud

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