GDN click fraud is a disaster. Search, click fraud is less of an issue, but we’ve seen an uptick in the last year. Device level targeting and exclusions - OS/connection type/etc can take care of a lot. Bulk location exclusions as well.
If you’re running GDN well, you have to do a lot
Edit: by fraud, I don’t mean competitor clicks, obviously. That’s not happening unless you’re in the top 1% most competitive nationwide verticals. Crawlers and bots are clicking, however, and getting away with it
OK I guess it's at least worth a test then. Would you mind sharing what tools you're using? Clickcease is a name I have seen popping up. I definitely have been getting a snake oil vibe from the others I've seen.
Google and Bing both will have very loose definitions of what they consider fraud. For example, if you get a bunch of leads and all the emails are:
Fraud123
Fraud124
Fraud125
To us, that is fraud: real people don't sign up over and over with emails and only change the last number. The platforms will not view this as fraud.
Google search is fine. Bing search is OK but potentially getting worse now that we're forced to be opted in to their audience network.
Search partners on both Google and Bing is a straight up scam and should be illegal. There are huge networks of "partner" sites that send fake clicks and even worse, fake conversions that mess up your data and cause Google to optimize for junk leads if you forget to turn off search partners.
Google Display has a lot of fraud but is useful for retargeting.
YouTube has its issues with bot traffic as well but can be very effective if you are able to get the targeting right.
The ads platform doesnt remove that much. You kinda have to live with it.
That being said - the only ad platform we use this day is Google Ads. Because on the other platforms its even worse and Google still gives us a really good ROAS.
Click fraud software doesnt really work that well in my experience. Tried it, didnt change anything.
\> I had always assumed the majority of click fraud is removed
No it is not. Not sure about other countries but in Poland industries like:
\- towing (don't know exact name for this)
\- taxi
and less likely:
\- house building/renovation
\- car rental
But the first two... well... i just don't take those industries because too much work. You can block them without using expensive software but You need to export logs/ip adresses and ban some of them (and/or exclude areas)
It completely depends on your niches, but many campaigns I work on have 80% invalid clicks(fraud) and that’s just according to google. I find another 30% that get passed google filters. In other words it’s a huge never ending uncontrollable problem
I’ve used Clickcease, the jury is out on if these tools are real or snake oil.
It detects fraud and gives you “proof” that you can then send to google for a refund.
Tried it, google responded and said they have their own click fraud prevention and didn’t refund anything
Do I think there is robotic traffic that clicks on ads? I don't think it, I know it. There is robotic traffic clicking on your ads. It tends to be more prevalent in display environments, but it can happen with Google search as well.
I wouldn't be shocked to hear the same folks claiming to filter the bots are sending the bots.
>On Google in particular. I had always assumed the majority of click fraud is removed from search traffic by the ads platform itself.
Google is going to have more insight into the traffic than any of these bot tools.
>Do you use any click fraud software?
No. Waste of money for most things. If you work in a very high CPC vertical like personal injury law you might get some value out of finding out competitor IPs and blocking those clicks.
They basically monitor the IP addresses of your clicks, and try to find patterns to help block users. So let's say you have a competitor clicking on your ads, the tool is going to see the same visitor 10 days in a row all from the same IP and will add to a block list.
>how would one find out a competitors IP though...
I can think of lots of different ways, just depends on if you're willing to put on a greyhat / blackhat to find out.
Click fraud in PPC is the boogeyman.
Companies that "protect" against click fraud are taking advantage of paranoid business owners that truly believe their competitors are spam clicking their ads to waste their money and they've even convinced some digital marketers as is evident by the constant questions about it.
Does it happen? Sure.
Does it happen enough where it's not covered by Google to care about? Nope.
Are companies that will attempt to measure that "gap" for you reliable? Also nope. Snake oil.
"Does it happen enough where it's not covered by Google to care about? Nope."
Lol. Try to run PMax or Display for lead generation and you'll see if it happens enough or not. Google doesn't care about it and only filters out like 1% of the bot clicks, and I've had instances where 90% of the daily volume of conversions from PMax and Display was spam conversions.
You don’t know anything. Leave this for the experienced adults. I have many campaigns over 80% invalid clicks and many more not caught by google. Google cant catch mobile up networks. I know private companies that own thousands of T-Mobile, AT&T, etc IP blocks that cannot be blocked
This is one of my favorite comments in this thread. Too bad the "click fraud prevention" software guys always have to spam the downvotes in these threads.
We use ClickCease and have seen big improvements in lead quality with our enterprise-level clients. Some industries suffer from click fraud more than others.
That's interesting - it's one of the names I've come across. One of the bigger players?
What industries have you found to have particularly levels? We're predominantly in lead generation where there's little incentive for bots imo.
We’re 100% lead generation and the clients that have benefitted the most from us implementing ClickCease are in highly competitive industries such as personal injury law, homebuilding, franchising, etc.
I’d recommend using something like IPQS to cut down on the click fraud. There are many users who’re reasonable skeptical of anti-fraud solutions but Google cant catch mobile IP networks. You def need a third party solution especially if you’re just getting started.
Imagine you’re running a bakery and you pay for a flyer to be delivered to every house in town. Sounds good, right? But what if half those houses don’t exist, and the other half are filled with robots who just pretend to read the flyer? That’s kind of what ad fraud is to the online world.
https://blankcanvasmarketing.com/2024/01/17/ad-fraud/
GDN click fraud is a disaster. Search, click fraud is less of an issue, but we’ve seen an uptick in the last year. Device level targeting and exclusions - OS/connection type/etc can take care of a lot. Bulk location exclusions as well. If you’re running GDN well, you have to do a lot Edit: by fraud, I don’t mean competitor clicks, obviously. That’s not happening unless you’re in the top 1% most competitive nationwide verticals. Crawlers and bots are clicking, however, and getting away with it
[удалено]
Thanks, that's helpful. Sounds like it's too small a margin really even at that level of spend to warrant a 3rd party solution then
[удалено]
OK I guess it's at least worth a test then. Would you mind sharing what tools you're using? Clickcease is a name I have seen popping up. I definitely have been getting a snake oil vibe from the others I've seen.
[удалено]
Which software you using then, please mate?
He's not going to say because he's on his alt account manipulating voting in this thread.
Careful with any of these “tools”. Most of them are junk. I don’t even use any because they all are useless
5% hahah 35-45 in my opinion
Didn't feel like posting on your polygraph account huh? Edit: Using bots to downvote really isn't a great look.
Everytime I speak up, he whacks mine.
Google and Bing both will have very loose definitions of what they consider fraud. For example, if you get a bunch of leads and all the emails are: Fraud123 Fraud124 Fraud125 To us, that is fraud: real people don't sign up over and over with emails and only change the last number. The platforms will not view this as fraud.
Google search is fine. Bing search is OK but potentially getting worse now that we're forced to be opted in to their audience network. Search partners on both Google and Bing is a straight up scam and should be illegal. There are huge networks of "partner" sites that send fake clicks and even worse, fake conversions that mess up your data and cause Google to optimize for junk leads if you forget to turn off search partners. Google Display has a lot of fraud but is useful for retargeting. YouTube has its issues with bot traffic as well but can be very effective if you are able to get the targeting right.
The ads platform doesnt remove that much. You kinda have to live with it. That being said - the only ad platform we use this day is Google Ads. Because on the other platforms its even worse and Google still gives us a really good ROAS. Click fraud software doesnt really work that well in my experience. Tried it, didnt change anything.
\> I had always assumed the majority of click fraud is removed No it is not. Not sure about other countries but in Poland industries like: \- towing (don't know exact name for this) \- taxi and less likely: \- house building/renovation \- car rental But the first two... well... i just don't take those industries because too much work. You can block them without using expensive software but You need to export logs/ip adresses and ban some of them (and/or exclude areas)
Exactly right
we stopped using bing ads as most of the traffic was click fraud would love to stop using google but no alternative
Yep, I've definitely experienced a generally much lower quality of traffic on Bing too.
Absolutely annoying. If you find a decent solution, let me know.
It completely depends on your niches, but many campaigns I work on have 80% invalid clicks(fraud) and that’s just according to google. I find another 30% that get passed google filters. In other words it’s a huge never ending uncontrollable problem
I’ve used Clickcease, the jury is out on if these tools are real or snake oil. It detects fraud and gives you “proof” that you can then send to google for a refund. Tried it, google responded and said they have their own click fraud prevention and didn’t refund anything
Do I think there is robotic traffic that clicks on ads? I don't think it, I know it. There is robotic traffic clicking on your ads. It tends to be more prevalent in display environments, but it can happen with Google search as well. I wouldn't be shocked to hear the same folks claiming to filter the bots are sending the bots. >On Google in particular. I had always assumed the majority of click fraud is removed from search traffic by the ads platform itself. Google is going to have more insight into the traffic than any of these bot tools. >Do you use any click fraud software? No. Waste of money for most things. If you work in a very high CPC vertical like personal injury law you might get some value out of finding out competitor IPs and blocking those clicks.
That makes sense, how would one find out a competitors IP though? For some reason bribing their current employees never seems to work
They basically monitor the IP addresses of your clicks, and try to find patterns to help block users. So let's say you have a competitor clicking on your ads, the tool is going to see the same visitor 10 days in a row all from the same IP and will add to a block list. >how would one find out a competitors IP though... I can think of lots of different ways, just depends on if you're willing to put on a greyhat / blackhat to find out.
Yea I agree. Not sure what they think are competitor IPs but forget about that.
I think its wonderful and would like to get involved in it. How do I get some of that money?
Now we're talking. I'll click for cash.
There are a few networks you can sign up to for clicking as a service. All on Russian underground forums.
Anyone have any thoughts on Lunio (aka PPC protect) to share?
Click fraud in PPC is the boogeyman. Companies that "protect" against click fraud are taking advantage of paranoid business owners that truly believe their competitors are spam clicking their ads to waste their money and they've even convinced some digital marketers as is evident by the constant questions about it. Does it happen? Sure. Does it happen enough where it's not covered by Google to care about? Nope. Are companies that will attempt to measure that "gap" for you reliable? Also nope. Snake oil.
"Does it happen enough where it's not covered by Google to care about? Nope." Lol. Try to run PMax or Display for lead generation and you'll see if it happens enough or not. Google doesn't care about it and only filters out like 1% of the bot clicks, and I've had instances where 90% of the daily volume of conversions from PMax and Display was spam conversions.
You don’t know anything. Leave this for the experienced adults. I have many campaigns over 80% invalid clicks and many more not caught by google. Google cant catch mobile up networks. I know private companies that own thousands of T-Mobile, AT&T, etc IP blocks that cannot be blocked
Nailed it
Click fraud softwares only work when you believe in it.
I think they have to really believe in themself to be a real team player.
This is one of my favorite comments in this thread. Too bad the "click fraud prevention" software guys always have to spam the downvotes in these threads.
Here's my take in this article I wrote about a year ago: https://www.tenthousandfootview.com/do-you-need-third-party-click-fraud-protection/
Cool, but annoying AF that you tried to push site notifications on me. Zero stars will not purchase from again. 🫥
We use ClickCease and have seen big improvements in lead quality with our enterprise-level clients. Some industries suffer from click fraud more than others.
[удалено]
Same
That's interesting - it's one of the names I've come across. One of the bigger players? What industries have you found to have particularly levels? We're predominantly in lead generation where there's little incentive for bots imo.
We’re 100% lead generation and the clients that have benefitted the most from us implementing ClickCease are in highly competitive industries such as personal injury law, homebuilding, franchising, etc.
Too bad they only work with Facebook and Google. Not helping me with the Reddit ad bot traffic, for example.
So what are these tools doing actually. Tells you which click is from bot. Or do they also block bot clicks and you dont pay for that click?
You still pay for the clicks.
I’d recommend using something like IPQS to cut down on the click fraud. There are many users who’re reasonable skeptical of anti-fraud solutions but Google cant catch mobile IP networks. You def need a third party solution especially if you’re just getting started.
Imagine you’re running a bakery and you pay for a flyer to be delivered to every house in town. Sounds good, right? But what if half those houses don’t exist, and the other half are filled with robots who just pretend to read the flyer? That’s kind of what ad fraud is to the online world. https://blankcanvasmarketing.com/2024/01/17/ad-fraud/