Powerful Ways To Eliminate Click Fraud In Your Account

Pay per click (PPC) campaigns can be a great opportunity for your business to get quality and targeted traffic. Depending on the niche, the competition can be tough and the CPCs (cost per click) very high.

The more you compete with many companies, on many keywords, the more likely you are to experience click fraud.

Click fraud can have many harmful repercussions including:

What Is Click Bombing?

Click Bombing is a process that consists of clicking a large number of times on a competitor’s ads or Google Ads ad extensions in order to generate unnecessary clicks which will still be billed.

What Is Click Bombing

Performing this kind of operation can have many advantages for unscrupulous competitors:

Click Fraud Techniques

Click Fraud Techniques

Click fraud is done manually or automatically (by software). Here are some common methods:

  1. Manual clicks: This method is not the most effective. It involves generating clicks manually. Either the fraudster clicks on the ads himself, or he solicits help from friends, relatives or colleagues.
  2. Click farms: These are mass clicks on banner ads, ads, videos or social media posts by employees who are often poorly paid and relocated. The consequences of these abusive clicks can be significant.
  3. Robots: Software is programmed to generate automatic clicks, making manual clicks by real people unnecessary.
  4. Botnet: In this, clicks are generated from several robots hosted on pirated servers. This method generates a large number of clicks under different IP addresses.

In addition, certain campaigns on social networks or forums encourage people to click on advertisements or posts. Internet users thus themselves contribute to fraud by generating unnecessary costs for advertisers.

How Does Google Detect False Clicks?

Google’s anti-fraud system works at three levels:

How Does Google Detect False Clicks
  1. The first level is automatic detection through filters that detect fraudulent clicks in real-time. They do not appear on the account and are not billed to the advertiser.
  2. The second level corresponds to the analysis carried out offline by the Google Ads quality team. Its members act manually before advertisers are billed. They can “flag” an IP as fraudulent. All clicks from this IP are then deducted from the accounts before billing. If you have already noticed a sudden drop in the number of clicks during the day, it is probably linked to this intervention.
  3. The last filter concerns advertisers’ requests for invalid click surveys. The Google Ads quality team then investigates on a case-by-case basis. If your suspicions are confirmed, incorrect clicks will be re-credited to you.

How To Identify False Clicks Yourself?

To effectively protect yourself from fraudulent clicks on Google Ads, you will need several pieces of information:

If you come across an IP address with several click timestamps but no action timestamps, it’s most probably fraudulent.

How To Identify False Clicks Yourself

If you find a potentially fraudulent IP, check who it belongs to and where it comes from. This site whatismyip.com will be a good start to start your research.

Always keep an eye out for proxy servers. Do some research on the IP in question and check whether it belongs to a proxy server located in a public place like airport, mall, railway station, public institution, etc.

You can also analyze the searches triggered by the IP in question. If they are varied, it’s most probably a proxy server. However, if the searches happen over a very short period of time and are similar, the clicks coming to you are most probably fraudulent.

How To Protect Yourself Against Fraudulent Clicks?

How To Protect Yourself Against Fraudulent Clicks

Do you think you are still being billed for clicks from competitors or potential robots despite Google’s controls?

You can act in several ways:

1. Exclude Fraudulent IP In Your Adwords Interface

Exclusions are made at the level of each campaign. Go to Settings > All settings. In Advanced settings at the bottom of the page, select Excluding IP addresses and then add your address list. Please note, Google only allows adding 500 addresses per campaign, a limit that can quickly be reached on large accounts.

2. Use Third-Party Services

Third-party click fraud detection platforms are specialized in detecting fraudulent clicks. As soon as a fraudulent IP address is detected, it is automatically blocked.

These services use two detection methods – a tracking template to implement in your account and a code to install on your landing pages. Prices depend on the number of clicks you receive each month.

3. Use Remarketing Lists

The search network and display are compatible with remarketing lists. Remarketing will allow you to hide your ads from users who have behaved on your site.

For example, you can exclude people who spent less than 2 seconds on your site or those who did not scroll (the easiest method is to use a timer via Google Tag Manager). The downside of this method is that it is easily bypassed because it uses cookies.

4. Use Geographic Targeting

If you find that most of the fraudulent IP addresses come from the same region/city, you can exclude it from your account interface (Settings > All settings > Zones).

This method should be used with caution because if you exclude an area that is too large, you will also be deprived of qualified traffic.

Conclusion

False clicks on AdWords are not inevitable.

By targeting your campaigns correctly and using remarketing wisely (not to exclude but to communicate differently with your prospects), you will limit the impact of fraud.

Vaibhav Lall

With more than 12 years of experience in digital marketing and consulting, Vaibhav is passionate about helping businesses grow through the strategic use of digital marketing best practices. When he's not busy advising startups, Vaibhav takes delight in listening to Jazz or John Mayer and Coldplay songs. He is also an avid proponent of the practice of mindfulness and starts his day with a calming meditation session. In his free time, Vaibhav can be found in quite corner, reading a Simon Sinek or Ben Horowitz book.