More than 40% of online advertisers and half of search engine marketing agencies claim they have been victims of click fraud associated with pay per click advertising, according to survey findings released Monday by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPRO).
Perceptions of click fraud have skyrocketed over the last year. Sixteen percent of advertisers perceived fraud as a serious problem in December 2005. That’s nearly three times higher compared to December of 2004.
“Network click fraud is a threat to the increasing value of search engine traffic and represents a significant hurdle to the growth of Google and Yahoo’s traffic. If left unchecked, click fraud could amount to millions of dollars in unwarranted expenses to advertisers,” SEMPRO board member Kevin Lee said, in a statement.
More than three-quarters of advertisers said they believed the sources of fraud were publishers, networks or affiliates attempting to increase revenue through non-authentic clicks.
One-third of advertisers surveyed said they are not actively tracking fraud and do not know if they’ve been a victim of fraud or not. About 25% of those surveyed said they do not believe that there is a fraud problem.
Radar Research conducted this online survey of 553 firms for SEMPRO.
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