Trying to stay one step ahead of online fraudsters, the ad industry continues to develop new - or refining existing - tools and strategies aimed at combating click fraud. Unfortunately, this problem shows no sign of abating - even as advertisers move to other forms of measurements.
In October ClickForensics reported that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 14.1% for Q3 2009. That's up from 12.7% for Q2 2009 and down from the 16% rate reported for Q3 2008. Botnets accounted for 42.6% of all click fraud in Q3 2009, it also said - a significant rise that has more than doubled in the past two years and up from the 27.5% reported for the same quarter last year.
Enhancing Tools
Much of the latest developments are enhancements of existing tools. Click Forensics just released an upgraded version of its Yahoo! TQ Forecast feature, which allows ad networks and publishers to more accurately predict the scores their traffic sources will receive before they're sent on to Yahoo. The new features focus on monitoring and adjusting traffic sources likely to impact Yahoo TQ scores, but also comes with enhanced Botnet detection - which Click Forensics calls an early warning system for advanced sources of fraud.
Advertise.com also recently tweaked one of its offerings, integrating ClickShield technology with its Display Advertising Network. The change allows advertisers to add and remove traffic sources based on real-time information, using behavioral targeting, vertical channel targeting, geo-targeting and remarketing.
Strategies
Such tech advances, though, are only half the battle. There are also several common sense precautions to combat fraud that advertisers should take, according to Undertone Networks' Chief Digital Officer Erin Matts, chief digital officer, starting with choosing the right ad server.
"It comes down to the networks and partners advertisers work with, so companies should choose wisely." Most ad servers allow advertisers to pull reports on the country of origin for impressions and clicks so it is easy to get a sense of how they count and handle click fraud and closely monitor site visitors, time spent and activity related to each click.
Other advice:
Specify US traffic only in insertion orders, unless international users are a target. Up to 40% of publisher site traffic comes from outside of the United States and ad networks are used as a clearinghouse for this inventory, Undertone says.
"A growing percentage of click fraud is through foreign IP addresses so monitoring this traffic will reduce your exposure."
Modify terms and conditions on media contracts. This is the most proactive measure advertisers can take to prevent fraud, Undertone advises. These amendments include specifically excluding incentivized traffic, use of ad exchange inventory, as well as practices like ad stacking and daisy-chaining which makes companies more vulnerable for click fraud.
