Click Forensics today reported that the overall industry average click fraud rate for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 16.0 percent in the third quarter of 2008. The rate was 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. The rate of click fraud for PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was significantly higher than the overall, representing 28.2 percent of clicks during the fourth quarter of 2008. Botnets made up over 31.4 of the click fraud during the quarter. Click Forensics gathers the data from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies
Category: Online Advertising
Ad Network Display Ad Rates Drop Slightly
According to a report (PDF) by PubMatic, display ad rates on ad networks drop slightly in the fourth quarter of 2008. The rate per thousand impressions averaged 26 cents down 3.7 percent from the third quarter. This follows a drop of 21 percent from the second to the third quarter. The rate had a year over year decline of 48 percent. Small sites (under 1 million monthly page views) averaged 61 cents, medium sites (between 1 million and 100 million) averaged 30 cents and large sites (over 100 million) averaged 17 cents. PubMatic compiles its data from a survey comprised of over 5,000 websites, approximately 85% of which are based in the US.
Google Universal Searches Tripled in 2008
During the Google’s fourth quarter financial conference call, Google’s Senior Vice President for Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg disclosed that the number of search queries that had displayed universal search results tripled in 2008. Universal search displays image, video, new, blog, and book results integrated with the standard website results. Rosenberg also said that Google had made 350 “search quality improvements” in 2008, with the “biggest addition” being the substantial increased size of the index. He also stated that mobile search traffic went up “substantially” during the year and peaked at the end of December. Finally, he said that ad coverage, the amount of queries that display ads and the number of ads displayed for those queries, had reached the level that it had been in the beginning of 2008 after having dipped during the year.
Advertising Trade Groups Developing Behavioral Targeting Guidelines
The advertising trade groups the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau along with the Council of Better Business Bureau have announced that they plan to develop self-regulatory guidelines for behavioral targeting ads. The groups will focus on the areas of education and transparency, consumer notification and choice, data security, and self-regulatory enforcement; which were the areas that the Federal Trade Commission proposed be the focus of self-regulatory efforts in a December 2007 guideline. The groups also plan “to engage with policymakers, a broad cross section of business, consumers, and other important stakeholders” on the issues. Adweek reports that the timing of the groups announcement was likely an attempt to get out in front of privacy issues related to behavioral targeting before the Obama administration and new Congress have a chance weight in on the issue.
Local Business Ads Get New Features on Google Maps
Google has announced that AdWords has added new features to the local business ads that appear in Google Maps. The info window that is displayed when a listing is clicked now provides links to get directions, view a street view, and save the location to user’s My Maps. The option for the user to receive the business’s information on their phone on in an email will be added “shortly.” Advertisers will not be charge for users using these new features. Local business ads currently are available for businesses located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and Spain. In addition, Google will begin to provide reporting of user interaction with local business ads ” in a few weeks.”
Google Expands AdSense Program for Parked Domains
Google has opened up AdSense for Domains, it’s advertising program for parked domains, to all English language AdSense publishers in North America. Previously, the program was only available to “large domain portfolio owners.” The program provides the ability for owners of parked domains to generate revenue from those domains by allowing Google to display ads, links, and search results on the parked domain. According to a post on the Inside AdSense blog the program will be expanded to publishers in “ additional regions and languages in the future.”
AdWords Reduces U.S. Alcohol Related Restrictions
Google announced that they have reduced the restrictions on advertising hard alcohol and liqueur through AdWords for ads that target the United States. Previously, there was a complete ban on advertising hard alcohol and liqueur. Under the new policy, advertising that promotes information, such as recipes and brand messages is permitted, but directly promoting the sale hard alcohol and liqueur is not permitted. Earlier this fall AdWords began permitting the promotion of the sale of beer. According to a post on the Inside AdWords blog there are plans to expand the new policy “to other countries in accordance with local regulations are expected in the coming weeks.”
Google Adds Option to Target Ads to iPhone and T-Mobile G1
Google today announced the option to target ads to phones with full (HTML) Internet browsers in AdWords advertising system. Currently only the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1 are supported, but according to a post on the Inside Adwords blog, as additional devices enter the market they will be available to target. The new targeting option supports advertising on searches as well as text and image ads on the Google content network. Google already provides the option to target advertising to phones using WAP browsers.
eMarketer Lowers Online Advertising Projection
eMarketer has lowered its projection of growth in online advertising over the next several years from what it projected several months ago. eMarketer’s new report says that the revision was made because the old projections were made “before the full impact of the economic slowdown was revealed.” Spending in 2008 is projected to be 23.6 billion dollars, an increase of 11.3 percent. Spending in 2009 is projected to be 25.7 billion dollars, an increase of 8.9 percent. Spending in 2010 is projected to be 28.5 billion dollars, an increase of 10.9 percent. Spending in 2011 is projected to be 32.0 billion dollars, an increase of 12.3 percent. They also project that search advertising will continue to receive the largest amount revenue and continue be receive more than double the next largest, display advertising, from 2008-2013.
Online Advertising Grew 11 Percent in Third Quarter
Online advertising revenue reached 5.9 Billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Third quarter revenue was 2 percent higher than the second quarter of 2008. Revenue for the first nine months of 2008 reached 17.3 Billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 14 percent.