How to identify and eliminate a click fraud attack

Have you ever experienced click fraud? Want to know how to identify and eliminate it? Luckily you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we will look at how one can identify a click fraud attack and make sure it is taken care of. So keep reading to learn more about what actions you can take today. 

Click fraud occurs when click fraudsters or bots click on a website or advertisement link multiple times. This uses up that site’s pay-per-click (PPC) advertising budget and causes the competing site’s advertisement to appear lower in the Google search results page. Click fraud attacks additionally allow for invalid traffic to appear in the analytics, giving the site or advertiser an inaccurate representation of their online engagement. 

Therefore, the question arises as to how one can notice such an attack is occurring to them? According to TechTarget, there are three main signs that are indicative of a click fraud attack: 

1.  Repeated Clicks: If you notice that your page has a sudden influx of clicks in a short amount of time, it is most likely that it is a click fraud attack. One main indicator of it being a click fraudster is if the influx of clicks comes from the same IP address or internet service provider. 
2. Low conversion rates: Usually accompanying a high click rate, low conversion rates can be indicative of click fraud. Given that click fraudster’s main goal is to try and use up the advertising budget for PPC ads through multiple clicks, it is most likely that the perpetrators will not linger on the linked page for long. 
3. Decline in page views and increase in impressions: If you notice that your page is not getting as many views, yet your impressions or the number of times your advertisement appeared to online users has increased, it is possible that you may be experiencing a click fraud attack.  

Now when it comes to eliminating a click fraud attack, it is very important to focus on preventing them in the future. You could always try and report click fraudsters on software and advertising platforms, but it is best to try and monitor your site analytics so that you do not fall victim to such an attack. In addition, try to budget a different amount of money for each advertisement on a variety of different websites. That way, if a click fraud attack occurs on one of your advertisements, not all of your budget goes to waste. If you want to learn more about click fraud, make sure to check out all our other posts here.