Click fraud is a serious issue in the digital advertising world since it can result in high expenses and false performance metrics. Businesses are affected because it increases ad costs, distorts analytics, and reduces ROI. Businesses that depend on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising must understand click fraud, how it happens, and how to stop, identify, and get rid of it. We will be discussing the major types of click fraud to assist you fight it. We’ll explain them, walk you through some real-world situations, and discuss how to combat these problems.
What is click fraud?
Click fraud is a type of ad fraud when fraudsters generate a lot of fake clicks, usually on cost-per-click (CPC) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements.
They execute this either manually, when a lot of people click and pretend to be actual customers, or on a larger scale, using specialised software.
This is what cybercriminals do in an attempt to:
- Make money
- Drain a company’s funds
- Harm the reputation of the brand
Main Types of Click Fraud
Now that we have discussed the basics, let’s look at the most common types of click fraud that occur nowadays.
Manual Click Fraud
One kind of click fraud is manual click fraud, in which the scammers manually create fake clicks, usually on advertisements.
For instance, if one or more attackers click on your advertisement, they can spend all of your ad money without ever making a purchase. It not only wastes your advertising money but also affects your performance metrics.
Click Farms
Click farms are groups of people who are paid to click on advertisements and produce fake clicks.
In a low-wage country, a typical click farm can affect metrics and drain your ad budget, just like manual click fraud, but even though the workers are paid to click on your advertisements, the impressions will not result in anything.
Bot Traffic
The term “bot traffic” refers to automated programs or bots designed to imitate human online activity, particularly ad clicks.
A normal botnet can produce thousands of clicks on your advertisements, giving the impression that a large number of customers are considering your product or service.
According to recent studies, bots account for up to 42% of all internet traffic, with 65% of those bots being malicious. This is just meant to highlight the extent of the bot traffic issue.
Ad Stacking
This kind of mobile ad fraud includes hidden ads, or more precisely, several ads that are positioned behind one ad. The user can only see the top ad in this situation, but clicks are recorded for all ads below it. The user will only see one advertisement as a result, while the other hidden advertisements will receive fake impressions and clicks.
For instance, if you click on one of the five adverts that are displayed in a single ad slot on a website, the click will be recorded on all five.
All of this can result in inaccurate performance metrics and financial losses.
Pixel Stuffing
Similar to ad stacking, pixel stuffing involves hiding an advertisement on a fraudulent website in a tiny 1×1 pixel frame, so the viewer is unaware of it at all. Still, traffic is directed through it. It also means that bots can still click on it even though it is invisible to the human eye.
With this approach, you pay for advertisements but receive nothing because only bots see them. This might result in a large spending on ads with little to show for it.
Domain Spoofing
In this kind of click fraud, scammers pose as high-value domains in order to increase their ad revenue. Although its users and impressions are certainly genuine, the websites are nevertheless of poor quality, making the high costs unreasonable.
A great example of this is when a poor website attempts to appear to be a credible news website in order to obtain premium advertisements.
Click Injection
Click injection and click spamming are comparable, but click injection is more complex. It turns out that this kind of virus creates clicks before real users can click.
Click fraud of this kind frequently happens when installing apps. To make it look as though the user has engaged with the advertisements, the mobile app will essentially insert clicks throughout the installation process.
How to prevent click fraud
There are several methods businesses can implement to protect themselves from click fraud:
Use click fraud detection tool: Specialised tools are available to identify and stop fake clicks instantly. Before it affects your campaign, these tools analyse click patterns and stop suspicious activity.
Set up IP exclusions: There are systems such as Google adverts that let you block certain IP addresses from viewing your adverts. You can prevent specific IP addresses from engaging with your advertisements if you observe suspicious actions from them.
Implement conversion tracking: You can distinguish between fraudulent clicks and real users by tracking conversions. Clicks and conversions can be compared to identify any unusual behaviours or possible fraud.
Monitor Ad campaigns regularly: You may detect click fraud early by regularly checking your ad stats for unusual increases, poor conversion rates, and strange click behaviour.
Geotargeting: Restricting your advertisements to particular regions might help cut down on fraudulent clicks, particularly from click farms situated in areas with a track record for fraud.
Use CAPTCHAs: By adding CAPTCHAs to landing pages, you can help weed out bots and make sure that only real people are clicking on your adverts.
You’ve seen how click fraud works, the most common types, and how they affect businesses like yours. Knowing the most pervasive types of click fraud is crucial in learning how to prevent and combat them.
