» Click fraud continues to be a major problem for online advertisers. The ClickForensics report points to a rise in click fraud across the globe. Based on data collected from more than 300 ad networks, the Click Fraud Index showed that the overall industry average click fraud rate was 18.6 percent - up from the 17.4 percent reported in the first quarter of the year. The rise is being attributed to the growing sophistication of botnets and malvertising. Countries with some of the biggest volumes of click fraud in the second quarter of this year include Singapore, Japan, China, Ukraine and Pakistan. But looking at the chart below, which gives the click fraud risk level for different countries, it would seem the problem is pretty widespread in mature European markets. The UK, France and the Netherlands have some of the highest risk ratings, highlighting the serious click fraud problems that exist in the European DR marketplace.

» Google released its Adplanner June data for the top 1000 global sites this week. Big risers in the 1000 site index included Marca.com, ESPN.com and goal.com - mainly due to the World Cup and the Tour De France. I'm sure most European ad networks and publishers have factored these cyclical events into their sales pitch when touring the agencies. Here's a summary of the big movers for the month:

- June was a banner month for Spain as it led up to this month's big World Cup win and Spaniard Albert Contador winning the Tour de France. Marca.com was a winner too with a 79% increase in unique users from the month before.
- The World Cup didn’t go unnoticed either in the United States as espn.go.com saw a 48% rise in June. And won’t it will be interesting to see where ESPN falls in the July Ad Planner 1000 thanks to some stateside craze of our own named Lebron James?
- In May goal.com jumped 21% in the Ad Planner 1000 rankings and the momentum didn’t stop in June when the site enjoyed a 40% rise in unique users.

The full analysis for the month can be read here.