Google, long tight-lipped about exact click-fraud rates, has now said that fraudulent clicks account for just 0.02 percent of all activity according to MarketingPilgrim.

The numbers come from an outside auditing firm that has determined not only that the click-fraud rates are so low but also that fraudulent clicks that are filtered out and never charged to the advertiser is less than ten percent of all clicks. The report comes as Google prepares to roll out a number of tools for advertisers to exercise more control and combat some fraud on their own. One of the biggest of those tools will be the ability for advertisers to block clicks from a particular IP address. That would enable the advertiser, based on conclusions drawn from the increased reporting functionality that will also be launched soon, to designate an IP as consistently producing fraudulent clicks and for no more clicks from it to be accepted.

PC World also reports that increased reporting functionality will also include a standardized form for reporting suspected instances of click-fraud as well as more educational materials on the problem.

Donna Bogatin at ZDNet argues that the 0.02 percent number is misleading, saying that represents simply the percentage that Google has agreed, after investigation, to reimburse advertisers for. In order to make this an accurate number, she says, all clicks would have to be verified. The fact that all marketing managers do not report what they feel to be click fraud, simply accepting it as an inevitability, throws off this number.