Click Fraud in Google Ads

Advertisers often feel that they are victims of click fraud, also known as click fraud. Are you one of them? Your concern is not entirely unfounded. According to estimates, click fraud causes the advertising industry over $7 billion in damages annually.

Click fraud refers to clicks on a paid ad with the intent to harm the advertiser.

What Causes Click Fraud?

• lick fraud results in costs for the advertiser for clicks that do not lead to conversions.
• This can deplete the advertiser’s daily Google Ads budget prematurely,causing the advertiser to disappear from the paid results of Google searches for the remainder of the day.
• The bot or human click fraudster will only spend a fraction of a second on the advertiser’s landing page, which could negatively impact the quality score.
  

Thus, the perpetrator benefits in two ways. the victim incurs costs, and the perpetrator’s ads are shown more frequently.

How is Fraud Committed?

There are basically two methods of click fraud: automated and manual. Automated click fraud uses software to repeatedly click on your ads. According to the „Bot Traffic Report 2016“ by Incapsula only about 48.2% of online activities are performed by humans. About 22.9% of traffic is attributed to “good bots” and 28.9% to “bad bots.”.

Manual click fraud is performed by real people. Sometimes the perpetrator, such as a competitor, clicks on your ads themselves. Alternatively, they may hire service providers (often from abroad) to do this unpleasant and time-consuming work for them.

Google has recognized this problem and developed a three-tiered system to combat click fraud:

• Automatic Filter: This filters out invalid clicks in real-time. They do not appear in reports, and the Google Ads budget is not charged.
• Automatic Analysis: Google examines anomalies and fluctuations. If anything appears unusual, the amount X is automatically credited back to you. These so-called ““invalid clicks”” can be viewed in the Google Ads account.
• Manual Review: If you notice unusual click behavior, you can request a manual review of your clicks from Google. The maximum review period is the last two months.

How Can I Recognize Click Fraud?

Distinguishing unusual click behavior from normal seasonal effects is not always easy. It is important to choose a comparison period. Three possible indicators of click fraud are:

• Your budget is being depleted unusually early.
• Certain placements in your display campaigns have unusually high click-through rates.
• An increased bounce rate or a significantly decreased average page dwell time of users.

In addition, there is specialized software that can help with click fraud or the suspicion of click fraud. We will discuss this in a future blog post.

Suspect you might be a victim of click fraud? Let’s address this issue together! Simply contact us at +49 911 24 030 050 or send us a message.