According to the Google AdWords team, the click fraud rate of advertisers is 0.02%. These fraudulent clicks are found via advertiser inquiries. I would also like to report that today Ecuador announced that they have officially eliminated 99% of government corruption. While I’m confident in Google’s ability to measure their click fraud rate, I’m equally skeptical of their publicized number.

Click advertising is already a debatable issue in terms of who should count as a legitimate click. For instance, if I know that clicking on an ad for “loan consolidation” costs a whopping $69.16 and choose to click the sponsored ads rather than the search results because of this, is that fraudulent? Well, I guess it’s an easy answer. If I was actually interested in the subject then it’s not fraudulent. On the other hand, if I enjoy taking money out of corporation’s pockets for fun once in a while, what’s stopping me? Basically, there is no way to really determine a person’s intention when clicking a link unless they are a repeat offender. I’m sure an Google adwords team member would argue otherwise.