Google Click Fraud Rate is less than 2%

11th Dec 2006 · Posted in Articles,Misc by admin · 2 Comments

Marketing Pilgrim brings us some exclusive Google information, which confirms my theory that click fraud numbers are generally being misrepresented.

Based on a discussion with Google’s business product manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, “the click fraud rate – as discovered by most AdWords advertisers – is on average, less than 2% of all clicks through Google’s system“.

Google has a four-stage process in identifying and filtering what it calls “invalid clicks”. Google’s definition of invalid clicks includes non-fraudulent clicks (such as a visitor genuinely clicking an AdWords ad more than once) and “click fraud” (those clicks that are obviously not legitimate).

[...]

Google is able to filter out the majority of invalid clicks before reports a served to the advertiser.

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Many advertisers – and click fraud detection companies – are looking at the wrong signals and often class valid clicks as fraudulent, or request refunds for clicks that Google had already discounted.

Read the full article for more details and re-produced diagrams.

[via Marketing Pilgrim]

2 Responses to 'Google Click Fraud Rate is less than 2%'

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  1. Leonard Holmes said (on December 12th, 2006 at 7:10 am)

    I think the key phrase here is “as discovered by most AdWords advertisers.” I doubt that this number represents the actual full extent of click fraud, as much of it probably goes undiscovered. Most estimates are quite a bit higher.

  2. Frank Michlick said (on December 13th, 2006 at 9:21 am)

    Leonard,

    I agree with you – the answer is probably some place in between. But on the other hand, like I said before: Not every click that is perceived by advertisers to be fraudulent actually is click fraud.

    I sometimes can’t shake the feeling that some advertisers would like to label every click that does not convert into a sale immediately as “click fraud”. There’s still some brand value to this click and who knows if the advertiser is tracking user returns properly (there might still be later purchase). And let’s not forget about some of the lack of quality in non-converting landing pages.

    Click fraud can be fought best if all of the participants play with open cards, so it can be a joint effort.

    /Frank