The world of pay-per-click advertising depends on traffic to keep it running. But almost as long as there have been PPC ads, there have been bots to “click” them and game the system.
The secret is that this problem is far more widespread than many digital marketers may assume, with some estimates that fake users account for nearly 40% of all web traffic.
CAT fraud is big business
A University of Baltimore study found that ad fraud is worth $35 billion worldwide in 2020 alone.
One of the most common ways this is perpetrated is through PPC fraud, in which website owners use an automated clicker, or click bot, to focus on Google Display, YouTube, or responsive text ads on their own site.
If these clicks are not identified as fraudulent, and often are not, the scammer collects a payout for each click from the advertiser. Not only does this falsely exaggerate ad performance, but it also siphons money from digital ad budgets for non-existent traffic.
Reactivity, fear of reduced performance, embarrassment can contribute to the proliferation of bots
Google has the technology to detect and block bot traffic. Using an automatic search engine filter in Google Analytics, users can instruct it to “exclude all hits from known bots and spiders.”
But that raises the question: why does Google block bots by default? The publisher, who asked to remain anonymous, offered the following opinion:
“Google has a long history of being reactive and not actively opposed to fake clicks. Google developed rules against fake clicks in response to schemes created by publishers to use the advertising platform.
For example, until it was banned, publishers could stylize their ads with colors and fonts, causing them to blend into the layout of the web page, blurring the difference between ad content and regular content, As a result, clickthrough rates as high as 50% and revenue was paid to the publisher, meaning the advertiser was charged.
Another example of how Google reacted is that in the early days there was a person who was known for click bots that partnered with people to share revenue. That person got away with it for a while.” This reactive approach left Google struggling to catch up as click bots develop new strategies and circumvention. Currently, because of privacy policies, there are technological limitations that prevent servers from accurately tracking what the browser is actually viewing. Servers are essentially working blindly.
As for advertisers being duped by fake clicks, many seem to be more interested in artificially high traffic numbers or they are embarrassed to admit that they purchased ad space that generated fraudulent clicks.
Fake accounts blamed for the failed Musk Twitter deal
After halting its acquisition of Twitter in May, the world’s richest man, Ilon Musk, cited concerns about the number of spam accounts on social media as a driving factor.
According to Musk, Twitter had underestimated the number of fake accounts on the platform by the millions, as confirmed by testimony from former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko, who claimed that executive bonuses were tied to users’ daily numbers.
Twitter responded by hitting Tesla’s CEO with a lawsuit alleging that less than 5 percent of all Twitter accounts were bots.
That lawsuit is due in court Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court. If Musk loses, he will be forced to buy Twitter for $4 billion.
Protect your advertising budget from Click bots
It’s impossible to 100% prevent your ad campaigns from bots, but you can reduce the impact by taking a few simple steps.
1Set up IP exclusions in Google Ads from known click farms.
Set up ad targeting to exclude geographic areas where fake clicks tend to appear.
Create placement exclusion lists so that your ad doesn’t appear on fraudulent or questionable sites.
Fighting click fraud is an ongoing process, and implementing an exclusion process can hurt your performance going forward, but it will save you money in the long run.