SEMPO has released stats about click fraud drawn from the The
State of Search Engine Marketing 2004 survey it released in December. For Search Engine Watch members, the
Click Fraud A Worry For Most;
Confirmed Problem For Many I’ve posted dissects the numbers in a series of charts.
Overall, the stats show that concern over the issue far outweighs those who have seriously tracked it
happening. However, a significant number have tracked and found it to be a problem. Key breakouts:
- Most marketers — between 36 to 58 percent — said they’re worried about click fraud but haven’t really tracked it much.
- About one-third of SEM firms/agencies and small marketers report click fraud as a confirmed “moderate” or “significant” problem.
- Only 15 percent of big marketers report it as a confirmed problem, with my speculation in the article above being that this is because so far, they haven’t found it worth
the time to track more closely. - Only a minority of search marketers, in the range of 23-33 percent, say they aren’t concerned about click fraud.
For more on this topic, see the Search Ads: Clickfraud area
of Search Topics, available to Search Engine Watch members. If you’re attending
Search Engine Strategies New York next week, also be sure to check out the
Click Fraud: A Legal Look session.
Also check out this recent ClickZ article, Click Fraud: What It Is, How to Fight It, looking at
some causes and confusion over click fraud.