Guarding Against Click Fraud in Google Ads - Protect Your Investment
Google Ads Click Fraud. Many businesses suffer from their ads being clicked away by competitors or by bots acting on behalf of competitors. To combat this Click Fraud, there are various effective tools available.
We've compiled the essential information for you.
What is Click Fraud?
Click Fraud is a deliberate attack on advertising budgets. Click Fraud refers to internet fraud aimed specifically at ads and banner displays that are compensated per click. Clicks are used to manipulate the systems behind the billing. Click Fraud is considered a crime related to economic fraud.
Common Types of Click Fraud
Click bots click on ads with the explicit intent of causing harm. They can be either bots clicking on Google AdSense ads, falsely indicating that specific banners on an affiliate site are being clicked, or bots specifically clicking on Google Ads to quickly deplete a competitor's budget.
What is a Click Bot?
A Click Bot is a small program that accesses a website and clicks on a desired link. The more advanced versions of such bots are programmed to perform specific sequences of actions. For example, clicking on an ad may lead to adding a product to the cart, but then abandoning the cart. The Click Bot causes harm in multiple ways – it reduces the budget and diminishes the user experience on the site due to cart abandonment.
Who is Behind Click Fraud?
According to a study by ClickCease, 72% of clicks on ads are actually genuine clicks. 24% of clicks come from competitors, and 4% are realized by bots
Competitors
Competitors click on your ads, depleting your advertising budget. As a result, potential customers can only click on the ads of your competitors.
Bots
Bots account for at least 40% of internet traffic. Some of these bots are specifically programmed for PPC click fraud.
Click Farms
Click farms, hired by your competitors, systematically remove your PPC ads from search engine results pages on a large scale. Actions may originate, for example, from Africa, India, Asia, or Russia.
Accidental Clicks
Up to 50% of mobile ad clicks happen because the thumb clicks somewhere by mistake or is too big. These are clicks that genuinely occur by accident.
Marken-Hasser
Bis zu 50 % der mobilen Ad-Klicks kommen daher, dass der Daumen einfach zu schnell irgendwo draufklickt oder zu dick ist. Dies sind Klicks, die tatsächlich aus Versehen entstehen.
How much does click fraud cost businesses?
Click fraud costs advertising networks billions. Forbes estimated the figure to be at least $19 billion in 2017. Fraudsters using a botnet or even taking over IP addresses from "innocent" users can engage in click fraud on a much larger scale.
By the end of 2018, a single criminal organization was exposed to have earned over $29 million through ad fraud.
How can you protect against click fraud?
There are various systems that protect against click fraud. One of the industry leaders is Click Cease. This company uses its proprietary algorithm that examines hundreds of fraud signals and distinguishes between innocent clicks and click fraud.
The graphic on the side illustrates the evaluation of such an algorithm.
CHEQ Essentials: The Ultimate Protection for Your PerformanceMax Campaigns
ClickCease relies on IP blocking, which is not sufficient for PerformanceMax (PMax). If you need to defend your PMax campaigns against attacks, CHEQ Essentials is the perfect solution!
CHEQ Essentials elevates protection to a new level by adding thousands of additional security tests to every visit request. This way, you are optimally protected against sophisticated attacks. Additionally, CHEQ Essentials provides automated blocking for Microsoft Ads and comprehensive protection for your PerformanceMax campaigns.
The system analyzes every visit request in real-time using thousands of cybersecurity tests to determine the validity of a user. This allows suspicious users to be excluded from paid channels or even completely blocked from your website.
Rely on CHEQ Essentials and protect your digital campaigns with cutting-edge technology!
What Systems and Options Are Available to Protect Against Click Fraud?
Google Ads click fraud can be prevented through various systems.
We recommend ClickCease for a highly detailed and automated system that directly reports fraudulent clicks to Google.
For attacks on P-Max campaigns, we recommend CHEQ Essentials, the only tool we know that can detect these attacks quickly and in real-time.
Additionally, there are other systems such as:
Investing in click fraud prevention software can pay off very quickly. It is estimated that around one-fifth of clicks on ads are fraudulent. Depending on your Google Ads or Bing Ads budget, this can amount to a significant sum.
Click fraud is a part of cybercrime. We support you in detecting click fraud through our CyberCrime Consulting services.
