Click Fraud Rate Drops to 19.1 Percent in Q4 2010

New Malware Scheme Targeting Display Advertisers Uncovered

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Click Forensics®, Inc. today released data on advertising audience quality figures for the fourth quarter 2010 from the industry’s leading independent online advertising data reporting service.

“We are investigating the malware-driven attacks in more detail, but early evidence points to an impression inflation scheme. It’s something we will examine more closely and report on later this year.”

Now in its fifth year, the Click Forensics reporting service provides statistically significant data on audience quality for advertising campaigns conducted on top search engines, comparison shopping engines, online publishers and social networks. Traffic across more than 300 ad networks is reflected in the data. Key findings for Q4 2010 include:

• The overall industry average click fraud rate was 19.1 percent. That’s lower than the 22.3 percent reported for Q3 2010, but higher than the 15.3 rate reported for Q4 2009.
• The Click Forensics Malware Lab identified a new malware scheme targeting display banner ads. The sophisticated program performs a pop-up or pop-under and rotates brand advertisers’ banner ads every 10-15 min in an effort to seemingly boost impression figures. Click Forensics researchers are working diligently to quantify the impact of this new scheme.
• In Q4 2010, the countries outside North America producing the greatest volume of click fraud were Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Sweden and France, respectively.

“While the overall click fraud rate dropped last quarter for CPC advertising, we saw the emergence of new schemes focused on display advertisements,” said Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics. “We are investigating the malware-driven attacks in more detail, but early evidence points to an impression inflation scheme. It’s something we will examine more closely and report on later this year.”

Since 2006, Click Forensics has published industry data on online advertising audience quality. The company monitors online media traffic across over 300 ad networks as well as billions of clicks from top search engines, comparison shopping engines, social networks, leading publishers and advertiser web sites – providing the most accurate view of online advertising audience quality.

For more details, visit http://www.clickforensics.com/resources/click-fraud-index.html.

About Click Forensics, Inc.

Click Forensics® is the industry leader in online ad verification and traffic quality improvement for the online advertising community. Click Forensics provides audience verification and traffic quality management solutions for leading online search and display advertisers, agencies, publishers and ad networks. The company also regularly publishes industry data on online advertising audience quality. Click Forensics is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and is privately held with funding from Sierra Ventures, Austin Ventures, Shasta Ventures and Stanford University. More information on Click Forensics and its offerings is available at www.ClickForensics.com.

Click Forensics is a registered trademark of Click Forensics, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.