Post by moon125 on Nov 9, 2024 23:05:27 GMT -6
No one is immune from click fraud. This fraud is also known as click fraud. It doesn't matter if you are just starting to launch contextual advertising or have been using it for a long time. One fine (or not so fine) day you get a huge number of clicks on your ads, but the joy does not last long, because sales do not follow, and the budget is wasted. Most likely, it was done maliciously.
The risk that your advertising campaign will suffer from the actions of fraudsters is quite high. Experts predict that the costs of this type of fraud will exceed 16 billion US dollars. Therefore, it is so important to do everything possible to avoid becoming one of the victims.
What is the essence of click fraud?
Click fraud is a type of fraudulent activity. The goal of fraudsters is to make false clicks on advertisements - this causes significant financial losses for advertisers. The problem especially concerns contextual advertising launched using the CPC model (with payment per click).
Advertisers in Yandex Direct and Google Ads often suffer from click fraud.
Reasons for click fraud:
Attacks by competing organizations. Competing shopify website design companies may monitor your ads and click on ads many times without placing an order. Such fraud is usually recognized by the sites, and the money spent on these dubious actions is returned to the advertiser.
Bot attack. These are programs that imitate the actions of real users. They systematically perform false clicks.
Activity of dishonest webmasters. Their sites host advertisements, and webmasters receive income from clicks on them. The goal of these webmasters is to increase the "clickability" of advertisements on their own sites by any means necessary.
Click fraud platforms. A competitor can "hunt" for your ads by placing an order on a click fraud platform - a portal where people click on ads frequently for a low fee. The same method can be used directly by webmasters themselves to click on ads placed on their websites.
Clear signs of click fraud
2-click.png
Let's say you launch and control advertising campaigns in the networks we talked about above: you run ads, monitor rates, conversion rates, and select appropriate sites for further advertising placement. And during the analysis, you notice click fraud. But is it really that? You can identify click fraud by the following signs:
KPIs are missing
If there are clicks on ads, but no conversions (or other set KPIs), this means that someone is clicking on your ads. When placing ads in Ads, Direct, in social networks, compare the conversion on these platforms. Have you noticed a lack of conversion in comparison with other advertising channels? Then you need to act immediately.
For example, when VKontakte receives 500 clicks on an ad with a conversion rate of 50, and Google has 0 conversions for the same 500, this indicates that fraudsters were at work.
If 500 real users clicked on an advertisement and were interested in the offer, then at least ten of them should have performed the target action – filled out a form, made an order, etc.
Negative behavioral factors
The first point slowly turns into the second: many bounces and short session durations. Here again, comparing two similar advertising sources will help.
In the case where, when moving from the first source, we see that users fill out a contact form, view the site pages, are interested in the content, and the viewing depth indicator increases, but from the second, all this is absent, then we need to immediately begin to take countermeasures (they will be discussed below).
Data center IP addresses
In addition to these factors, you also need to consider the IP addresses of the users who clicked directly on the ads. Using a data center IP address is one of the signs of malicious fraud. This means that the pseudo-user is accessing from the host server, not from their work or home computer.
You can contact the support service of the platform where the campaign was created if you notice such activity. You may be compensated for the losses incurred as a result of click fraud.
Abnormally high CTR
3-click.jpg
Another red flag of the fraud we are looking at that is felt by many advertisers is an abnormal CTR (click-through rate).
If you place an ad on a specific site, and the CTR percentage = 1% or as much as 0.3%, then it is worth studying these clicks in more detail. What you need to know: if there is no KPI, the bounce rate is high and the session duration is low, then it is better to get rid of such CTR and this donor.
Traffic sources
It is also important to analyze campaign reports. It is necessary to take into account the mass of web services with a low traffic rate, from where clicks on the ad come. It is recommended to check the reports on the sites. If you find that these websites bring empty traffic (no conversions), while popular services bring a flow of real users, then you need to add to the "black list".
However, less publicized sites are not synonymous with fraud. These websites can generate well-targeted conversions. However, detailed and qualitative analysis of these donors is necessary.
The risk that your advertising campaign will suffer from the actions of fraudsters is quite high. Experts predict that the costs of this type of fraud will exceed 16 billion US dollars. Therefore, it is so important to do everything possible to avoid becoming one of the victims.
What is the essence of click fraud?
Click fraud is a type of fraudulent activity. The goal of fraudsters is to make false clicks on advertisements - this causes significant financial losses for advertisers. The problem especially concerns contextual advertising launched using the CPC model (with payment per click).
Advertisers in Yandex Direct and Google Ads often suffer from click fraud.
Reasons for click fraud:
Attacks by competing organizations. Competing shopify website design companies may monitor your ads and click on ads many times without placing an order. Such fraud is usually recognized by the sites, and the money spent on these dubious actions is returned to the advertiser.
Bot attack. These are programs that imitate the actions of real users. They systematically perform false clicks.
Activity of dishonest webmasters. Their sites host advertisements, and webmasters receive income from clicks on them. The goal of these webmasters is to increase the "clickability" of advertisements on their own sites by any means necessary.
Click fraud platforms. A competitor can "hunt" for your ads by placing an order on a click fraud platform - a portal where people click on ads frequently for a low fee. The same method can be used directly by webmasters themselves to click on ads placed on their websites.
Clear signs of click fraud
2-click.png
Let's say you launch and control advertising campaigns in the networks we talked about above: you run ads, monitor rates, conversion rates, and select appropriate sites for further advertising placement. And during the analysis, you notice click fraud. But is it really that? You can identify click fraud by the following signs:
KPIs are missing
If there are clicks on ads, but no conversions (or other set KPIs), this means that someone is clicking on your ads. When placing ads in Ads, Direct, in social networks, compare the conversion on these platforms. Have you noticed a lack of conversion in comparison with other advertising channels? Then you need to act immediately.
For example, when VKontakte receives 500 clicks on an ad with a conversion rate of 50, and Google has 0 conversions for the same 500, this indicates that fraudsters were at work.
If 500 real users clicked on an advertisement and were interested in the offer, then at least ten of them should have performed the target action – filled out a form, made an order, etc.
Negative behavioral factors
The first point slowly turns into the second: many bounces and short session durations. Here again, comparing two similar advertising sources will help.
In the case where, when moving from the first source, we see that users fill out a contact form, view the site pages, are interested in the content, and the viewing depth indicator increases, but from the second, all this is absent, then we need to immediately begin to take countermeasures (they will be discussed below).
Data center IP addresses
In addition to these factors, you also need to consider the IP addresses of the users who clicked directly on the ads. Using a data center IP address is one of the signs of malicious fraud. This means that the pseudo-user is accessing from the host server, not from their work or home computer.
You can contact the support service of the platform where the campaign was created if you notice such activity. You may be compensated for the losses incurred as a result of click fraud.
Abnormally high CTR
3-click.jpg
Another red flag of the fraud we are looking at that is felt by many advertisers is an abnormal CTR (click-through rate).
If you place an ad on a specific site, and the CTR percentage = 1% or as much as 0.3%, then it is worth studying these clicks in more detail. What you need to know: if there is no KPI, the bounce rate is high and the session duration is low, then it is better to get rid of such CTR and this donor.
Traffic sources
It is also important to analyze campaign reports. It is necessary to take into account the mass of web services with a low traffic rate, from where clicks on the ad come. It is recommended to check the reports on the sites. If you find that these websites bring empty traffic (no conversions), while popular services bring a flow of real users, then you need to add to the "black list".
However, less publicized sites are not synonymous with fraud. These websites can generate well-targeted conversions. However, detailed and qualitative analysis of these donors is necessary.