Here are some of the key statistics for the study:

• Among small to large businesses,  the overall industry average click fraud rate was 22.3 percent,  up from the 18.6% for Q2 2010 and 14.1 % reported for Q3 2009.

• In Q3 2010, the countries outside North America with significant CPC traffic producing the greatest volume of click fraud were Japan, The Netherlands, The Philippines and China, respectively.

These statistics are very concerning. Over the years, we have seen companies losing thousands of dollars on a monthly basis to fraudulent click traffic. This can happen right under the company’s nose and yet if they don’t know what to look for, it can continue to happen on a daily basis.

Although the major pay per click advertisers continue to implement better click fraud monitoring throughout their advertising systems, it is still important for any advertiser to be able to watch for trends in their analytics and web logs that might indicate that you are becoming a victim of fraudulent clicks.

If your business has active pay per click or other paid search campaigns, it is very important to monitor your activity on a weekly or monthly basis and to report any suspicious activity to your paid search representative.

For more information on how you can protect your monthly spend for the various paid search advertising platforms, contact a&g at www.consultagc.com.

The data below was collected by Quantcast.com.

From an online marketing prospective, the monthly traffic to these websites is staggering. YouTube.com brings in about 81.6M US visitors a month, making this a must for any businesses who are utilizing online video. YouTube is also a great way to distribute viral marketing campaigns.Facebook and MySpace are great places to promote your business and let everyone in on your local events and promotions. Facebook members who have had a pleasant experience with your businesses or have heard good things about you will gladly “become a fan” of your business, opening up a whole new level of exposure to their network connections.

In the recent month, I have had many Indianapolis based businesses who are leary of testing marketing efforts in these mediums, for fear that the sites are “for kids”. This is clearly not the case. Sure, these websites are a daily staple for teenagers and young adults, the data above clearly represents a wider age range of visitors. I think that most businesses can include social networking in to their online marketing plan, but with any types of online advertising, it is important to have the proper tracking mechanisms in place. Try some targeted advertising, tailored to the demographic of the website’s audience. Use promo codes and discount codes to help track your sales from that particular medium and like always, watch your online statistics for traffic and conversion data.