What Is Ad Fraud?
Ad fraud is when fake clicks, impressions, or traffic artificially inflate your advertising costs without delivering real customers.
Types of Ad Fraud
Click Fraud
- Competitors clicking your ads
- Bot networks generating fake clicks
- Click farms with human clickers
Impression Fraud
- Ads displayed to bots, not humans
- Hidden ad placements
- Ad stacking
Affiliate Fraud
- Fake referrals
- Cookie stuffing
- Attribution manipulation
Warning Signs
- High click rates but low conversions
- Traffic from unusual locations
- Bounce rates near 100% from ads
- Suspicious timing patterns
- Analytics anomalies
Business Impact
Wasted Budget
Money spent on fake traffic generates no return.
Corrupted Data
Analytics become unreliable for decision-making.
Competitive Disadvantage
While you waste budget, competitors gain ground.
Protection Measures
Traffic Quality Monitoring
Watch for signs of fake traffic in your analytics.
Platform Reporting
Report suspicious activity to ad platforms.
Blocking Measures
- Block suspicious traffic sources
- Geographic restrictions on ad campaigns
- VPN blocking can reduce some fraud
SecurEcommerce’s Role
While ad fraud primarily happens at the platform level, SecurEcommerce helps by:
- Blocking bot traffic that might click ads
- Reducing fake traffic that skews analytics
- VPN blocking for cleaner traffic data