Click fraud is a malicious practice that results in invalid clicks on the ad that is being monetized on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis. This practice is sometimes used by publishers who simulate the clicks on the ad in order to increase the revenue. Click fraud can also be utilized by the competitors of the advertisers that want an advertizer to waste money on paying for clicks that would not result in a sale.
There are 2 main ways to commit click fraud: manually click on the ads or utilize software that would automate the process and significantly boost the number of clicks. Advertisers should constantly monitor the quality of traffic they buy in order to detect any unusual activity and not waste the budget on click fraud.
Here are some of the signs of click fraud:
- Unusually high Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Clicks from repetitive IP addresses
- Irregular amount of clicks coming from a particular geographic location
- Rapid increases in traffic for certain keywords
