If you’re advertising digitally, chances are you’ve been stung by click fraud (and maybe without even knowing).
The saving grace for advertisers is there are ways to spot and prevent it. Thanks to Google ramping up their efforts to stamp out click fraud, there are now several ways to track and eliminate it on your Google Ads account and, if all else fails, software you can use to stop it happening.

In this guide, we’re going to look at what click fraud is, how scammers do it and what your business can do to prevent it.

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud, or in Google’s terms “invalid clicks”, is when a paid advertisement is clicked repeatedly on a website to drain revenue from an advertiser, or gain revenue for a website hosting the ad.

More and more of the world’s consumers are moving online for their purchases, so advertisers are now increasing their ad budgets into digital channels to meet demand. This means the amount of money being pumped into PPC is also increasing, and PPC fraudsters are upping their game.

As click fraud continues to gain traction, digital advertisers are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect it is having on their ad budgets.

As Google Ads is the largest arena for PPC marketers, Google have stepped up their game to take control of the problem. They now have their own investigation team in place, and have set up a range of filters and analysis to spot fraud while it’s happening.

There are three main types of click fraud you need to be mindful of:

1. Manual Clicks to Increase Your Ad Costs

These types of clicks are usually done by a competitor looking to drain your ad budget.

Let’s say you are ranking higher than your competitor in PPC search results. Your competitor doesn’t like it, clicks on your ads (a lot) to drive up your costs and, eventually, drive them so high that you can’t afford to advertise for those search terms anymore.

This type of click fraud goes beyond a disgruntled businesses owner sitting on their computer clicking competitor ads.

2. Manual Clicks to Increase Publisher Profits

If your PPC campaign is running on the Google Display Network, you could be open to this type of click fraud.

Each time an ad running on your campaign being hosted by a third-party website is clicked, they earn a cut.

How? Every third-party website that hosts Google Ads are part of the Google AdSense program. Once they’ve been accepted as a partner into the program, they’re given a whopping 68% cut of the ad spend given to Google on content searches.

3. Automated Clicks Using Software

Hackers have built sophisticated click fraud systems that use fake IP addresses and web sessions, sometimes known as “bot farms.”

Automatic click fraud is often targeted through data stored in cookies. Bots will look at demographic information, browser histories, past purchases and many other data points before targeting a certain ad.

How Can I Prevent Click Fraud?

As sophisticated as click fraud can be, it’s surprisingly easy to trace once you realise the fraud is taking place.

Most click fraud activity tends to come from the same IP address, so it becomes manageable once you spot it. However, it’s important to be aware of the warning signs that come along with click fraud activity.

These are usually:

· Unusual spikes in the number of ads clicks or impressions (with no conversions)

· A higher bounce rate despite more clicks

· Reduction in page views during unusual traffic spikes

If you don’t have time to track and monitor fraudulent activity (or you think it’s too complicated), it’s best to invest in some professional help.

There are several options available on the market that will provide you with dedicated reports that identify suspicious activity on your ads and your site.

Click Fraud Protection Software like ClickGUARD can help you build a fraud report on suspicious activity. That way, you can collect evidence to back up if you need to prove your case to Google.