Industry Click Fraud Rate Hovers at 16 Percent for Third Quarter 2008

Click Fraud Traffic from Botnets Rises 10 Percent; Botnets Grow to
Make Up More than 27 Percent of All Click Fraud
AUSTIN, Texas--(Business Wire)--
Click Forensics(TM), Inc. today released industry pay-per-click
(PPC) fraud figures for the third quarter 2008 from the search
advertising industry's leading independent click fraud reporting
service - the Click Fraud Index(TM) (www.ClickFraudIndex.com).

Now in its third year, the Click Fraud Index monitors and reports
on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network(TM), which more than
4,500 online advertisers and agencies have joined. The Click Fraud
Network provides statistically significant industry PPC data collected
from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies
across all the leading search engines. Key findings from data reported
for Q3 2008 include:

-- The overall industry average click fraud rate was 16.0 percent
for Q3 2008. That's down slightly from the 16.2 percent rate
reported for both Q2 2008 and Q3 2007.

-- The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing
on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense
and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 27.1 percent. That's down
from the 27.6 percent rate reported for Q2 2008 and the 28.1
percent average click fraud rate reported for Q3 2007.

-- Traffic from botnets was responsible for 27.6 percent of all
click fraud traffic in Q3 2008. That's up from 25.2 percent
for Q2 2008.

-- In Q3 2008, the greatest percentage of click fraud originating
from countries outside North America came from Russia (4.9
percent), France (4.8 percent) and the U.K. (3.5 percent).

"For the past two quarters the industry average click fraud rates
seem to be hovering around the 16 percent level," said Tom Cuthbert,
president of Click Forensics. "Gains are being made by advertisers
taking more action to proactively filter out fraud before it affects
online campaigns. However, the growth in click fraud traffic from
botnets continues to rise and it should be one of the top areas
advertisers and the industry should monitor closely."

The Click Fraud Index publishes data collected from the Click
Fraud Network (www.ClickFraudNetwork.com), the industry's first
independent third-party click fraud detection service dedicated to
helping companies more accurately monitor their online advertising
campaigns for pay-per-click fraud. Click fraud data is tracked and
published on a quarterly basis for specific search providers,
industries and trends. The service is unique in that it monitors
online campaigns for click fraud by correlating data collected from
search provider campaigns and the advertisers' own web sites -
providing the industry's most accurate view of click fraud to date.

About Click Forensics, Inc.

Click Forensics is the industry leader in scoring, auditing and
improving traffic quality for the online advertising community. Click
Forensics provides traffic quality management solutions for online
advertisers, publishers, and ad networks. The company also publishes
the Click Fraud Index(TM), the top independent source of industry
click fraud data. Click Forensics is headquartered in Austin, Texas,
and is privately held with funding from Sierra Ventures, Austin
Ventures and Shasta Ventures. More information on Click Forensics and
its offerings is available at www.ClickForensics.com.

Click Forensics, Click Fraud Index and Click Fraud Network are
trademarks of Click Forensics, Inc. All other company and product
names mentioned are used only for identification and may be trademarks
or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

for Click Forensics
Karl Scholz, 512-493-0909
karl.scholz@clickforensics.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008