Why is ad fraud SO hard to stop? (With examples)

If you advertise online (and what business doesn't these days), you'll already have first hand experience of how ad fraud can be a major problem. In this article, we'll take a look at why ad fraud is so hard to stop, and what you can do to prevent it.

You'll hopefully have an easier time protecting your business once you understand it better.

So, what exactly is ad fraud?

Ad fraud is a type of fraud that involves the deliberate manipulation of online ad engagement. This generally takes the form of fake clicks, impressions, or conversions.

Let's get straight into an example. Imagine you operate a business that sells custom websites to estate planning attorneys. And to advertise your services, you rely on Facebook and Google ads.

You keep track of the clicks, impressions, and conversions these ads create. The number of clicks seems to grow regularly, often in large numbers. This makes you think that these ads are reaching a lot of people who want to engage with what you offer.

But, there’s one problem; very few of the clicks on one particular ad are real. Most of them are fake. Someone is making money off those fake clicks by taking a cut of the ad revenue they are generating, while draining your ad budget.

Ad fraud is far more common than it should be. And, if you don’t take the steps necessary to protect your business from ad fraud, you could be at risk of the problems that this type of deception creates.

Why is ad fraud so harmful?

Ad fraud makes your advertising data unreliable. This makes it considerably more difficult for you to make effective business decisions, since accurate data is essential to understand what works and what doesn't.

Returning to the example we shared earlier, if you operate a business that sells a website development service to attorneys, you need to know which attorneys, in which parts of the country, are interested in that service.

If you notice that a lot of attorneys from Florida are clicking on your ads, reading through what you offer, then this could make you think that tailoring your ads to Florida-based attorneys would be a profitable decision.

In our example, though, this Florida-based traffic is fraudulent. There aren’t many attorneys in Florida looking at your services, and therefore any money you invest in ads focused on Florida is likely to be a waste.

Outside of producing inaccurate advertising data, ad fraud also drains your advertising budget. This is of course because every time someone clicks on one of your ads, you spend a little bit of the precious money set aside for marketing your business.

If the only "people" clicking on your ads are fraudsters, then your advertising budget is being wasted on those who have no intention of ever engaging with, much less buying, the services you have to offer.

Why is ad fraud so hard to stop?

So that's how ad fraud works. But let's take a look at some of the reasons why it's so hard to stop.

1. Many types of ad fraud are difficult to detect, due to just how sophisticated click bots, and other ad fraud mechanisms, have become.
2. Many of those committing ad fraud rely on VPNs and proxies, both of which change their IP address regularly, making it hard to tell if the same bot/person is clicking on your ads.
3. Detecting ad fraud often involves paying very close attention to the metrics for your ads and, if you do not have the time to do this, it can be very difficult to detect this fraud.
4. Many people are unfamiliar with what ad fraud looks like/can look like, which means they don’t have the ability to notice it — especially in its more sophisticated forms — much less the ability to stop it.
5. Ad fraud continues to grow and evolve, often encompassing new technologies — AI, for example — that have an easier time bypassing the ad fraud detection methods that are sometimes employed.

For these reasons (and others), it's very likely that ad fraud is here to stay. But, even though ad fraud is unlikely to ever be stopped, you can still protect your business from it. Next, we'll focus in on some of the options that are open to you.

Protecting your business from ad fraud

Even though ad fraud is very difficult to stop, there are a number of things you can do to protect your business from it. Here's at least 3 things you should do to keep on top of it...

1. Carefully monitor your ad traffic

If you're familiar with what ad fraud looks like, you can carefully monitor your ad traffic. By doing so, you can detect any suspicious metrics (i.e. outliers), allowing you to make adjustments.

A good example of the above is as follows. If you notice that the same IP address is clicking on your ads, you can block that IP address. This way, you won’t waste any more of your advertising budget on what may be a bot.

Focus on:

• The CTR (click-through rate) for individual search terms — are they much higher than they should be? Is the CR (conversion rate), much lower than for other terms?
• If you segment your ad activity by country or ISP, are you finding there's an unusually high number of clicks or impressions for one particular country or provider?
• Check the time of day that clicks occur. Is there a flurry of clicks in one particular hour of the day? Many businesses should expect that ad activity is minimal during night time hours, but are you finding there's a lot of clicks when real people are usually sleeping?
• Segment your ads in as many different ways as possible and look for unexplained spikes or outliers.

Even though carefully monitoring your ad traffic can be very effective, there are certain forms of ad fraud that are quite difficult to detect. This is why the other solutions outlined below can be more effective. 

2. Use an ad fraud prevention tool

A number of different ad fraud prevention tools are on the market. And, if you don’t have the time or ability to prevent ad fraud, investing in an ad fraud prevention tool is one of the best things you can do.

Most ad fraud prevention tools block IP addresses that appear to be connected to fraudulent clicks. But for the strongest possible protection, the best ad fraud prevention tools also block networks, devices, and bad referrer domains.

Hitprobe is our own ad fraud prevention tool. You can click here to learn more about what we offer and how it can help you protect your business from ad fraud.

3. Target your paid ads

Many ads can be targeted to specific groups of people who live in a particular place, belong to a particular profession, and are looking for your services at predictable times of the day or days of the week.

By understanding your audience like this, you can then carefully fine tune the targeting of your ads. Doing so can make it considerably more difficult for fraudsters to see these ads and, in turn, to abuse them, since they may not be a part of the groups you are targeting.

Despite the above being true, it's worth noting that targeted ads can still be hijacked by fraudsters. It may be less likely to happen, but it can still happen.

You can protect your business from ad fraud

Ad fraud is very difficult to stop. But, with the right tools, it's much easier for you to minimize the risk of ad fraud occurring, ensuring that your ad data remains effective, and your budgets intact.

If you want to invest in a good ad fraud prevention solution, take a look at what Hitprobe has to offer your business. If you enjoyed this article, you may also find our complete guide to click fraud helpful too.