What is click fraud? How to protect yourself from advertising fraud

Damage caused by click fraud in companies

The fraudulent manipulation of clicks causes damage in companies with varying effects. The economic consequences of fraud should not be underestimated. Estimates put the global damage value at 68 billion US dollars annually – with a strong upward trend.

Direct damage caused by manipulated clicks relates in particular to the waste of advertising budgets and the contamination of analytics data.

There is also indirect damage. An incorrect data basis can lead to incorrect decisions on important issues – in extreme cases, click fraud can even threaten the very existence of a company.

At the operational level, for example, contaminated retargeting lists are of importance, through which advertising budgets are wasted downstream.

Overall, manipulated clicks and the invalid traffic they generate are a financial, strategic and operational problem for companies. Detailed impact of Invalid Traffic can be found here: The Impact of Invalid Traffic on Your Marketing

Is click fraud illegal?

Manipulating clicks for fraudulent purposes is illegal and falls under the category of financial crime. Through advertising networks such as Google Ads, ad fraud is strictly punished. If fraudulent activities can be proven, exclusion from the advertising network follows.

Under criminal law, click fraud is not yet an explicit offense. In principle, however, prosecution for unfair competition is possible – provided the identity of the fraudsters can be determined and they are within the reach of the judiciary.

Conclusion: Click fraud is a serious problem

Fraudsters use manipulated clicks for a variety of reasons. Basically, the fraudsters want to gain financial advantages or improve their competitive position.

For the victims, ad fraud has direct financial consequences – in particular, advertising budgets are wasted. In addition, affected companies suffer indirect damage due to contaminated data, which can lead to wrong strategic decisions as well as operational problems including additional costs.

With manual evaluations, the various forms of ad fraud are usually difficult to detect and, above all, cannot be effectively controlled. Advertising budgets can only be effectively protected by using software – which must be able to detect and prevent click fraud in real time.

With fraud0, we have developed such a program. Our software reliably protects your ads from unwanted traffic and from fraud attacks – in all channels you use for advertising.

Sign up for a free 7-day trial and see for yourself.

Frequently asked questions about click fraud

What is click fraud?

Click fraud refers to the generation of clicks on advertisements on the Internet with fraudulent or malicious intent.

The aim of the fraudsters is to generate additional advertising revenue for themselves or to use up competitors’ advertising budgets through the attacks. Click fraud is thus primarily used to achieve competitive advantages by unfair means.

How can click fraud be detected?

In some cases, click fraud is very obvious – for example, when advertisers receive an above-average invoice for their advertising spend that is not justified by qualified traffic.

However, as a rule, detecting click fraud requires a detailed evaluation of relevant metrics based on various indicators. Optimally, traffic to ads should be monitored by software capable of detecting click fraud in real time.

Software such as fraud0 is also clearly superior to manual analyses when it comes to evaluating analytics data. In addition, the use of software makes it possible to directly prevent fraud attacks.

How is click fraud perpetrated?

Click fraud is perpetrated in various forms. Manual clicks left by fraudsters on a target page are not very efficient. Much greater damage is caused by fraud attacks through click farms, pay-to-click websites and, in particular, automated attacks by bots or botnets.

Ad stacking and incentivized traffic can also be attributed to click fraud.

What goals do fraudsters pursue with click fraud?

Basically, fraudsters want to gain advantages for themselves or their company through click fraud. This may involve financial advantages through additional advertising revenue or harming competitors.

Other goals of click fraud consist of reach manipulation of videos and social media posts.

Why is click fraud so widespread?

The anonymity and technical possibilities of the Internet are very conducive to the practice of click fraud. In addition, the fraudsters are organized worldwide – for example, click farms are often located in developing or emerging countries.

Bots and botnets, as the most common forms of click fraud, attack ads and campaigns on a fully automated basis and can achieve very high reach.

Another factor affecting the spread of click fraud is that it is not yet an explicit criminal offense and the fraudsters often cannot be identified.

How can click fraud be prevented?

Possible measures to prevent click fraud include continuously monitoring ad campaign traffic and looking for suspicious indicators, blocking certain IP addresses, and working with reputable advertising partners.

However, the most effective way to prevent click fraud is through software like fraud0, which identifies and blocks fraudulent attacks on ads and campaigns in real time.