PPC click fraud is a type of ad fraud that costs global advertisers billions of dollars annually. The problem is so prevalent that marketing and IT teams just accept it as a normal part of doing business in the digital era. As cyber security experts work on ways to combat it, the actual victims of PPC click fraud are left wondering who is doing it to them.
So who are the main perpetrators of PPC click fraud? According to the creators of the Fraud Blocker click fraud protection service, there are three groups responsible for the lion’s share of fraudulent ad clicks:
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The remainder of this post will look at each of the three groups in more detail. As you read, remember what PPC click fraud is: the practice of generating illegitimate traffic from pay-per-click ad platforms in order to drive revenue or cause harm to advertisers.
1. Publisher Ad Fraud
In the PPC world, a publisher is an organization that publishes PPC ads on websites and mobile platforms. Google is arguably the largest ad publisher in the world. Likewise, big tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft all publish ads. However, the publishers most likely to commit click fraud are much smaller operations.
Google has a vested interest in stopping PPC ad fraud because it affects their bottom line. On the other hand, a smaller publisher generates revenue only from ad clicks. It isn’t trying to do anything else. The fraudulent publisher does not care what their online reputation is. There are no concerns about SEO performance, brand loyalty, or anything else Google would care about.
The rogue publisher’s only concern is generating clicks to drive revenue. When the value of a particular website dries up, he closes it down and starts another. Likewise for a mobile ad platform.
2. Competitor Ad Fraud
Where publishers perpetrate PPC ad fraud to drive revenues, competitors engage in the practice to hurt their rivals. To understand why a competitor would do this, you need to know how PPC advertising works.
Advertisers, which is to say businesses and nonprofit organizations, design their online ads around certain keywords. They bid on those keywords through their chosen ad platforms. Whatever bid is accepted becomes the per-click price for the ad. Every time the ad is clicked, the advertiser is charged that amount.
Competitors looking to harm their rivals perpetrate PPC ad fraud for the sole purposes of wasting their rival’s money. Every fraudulent click generates a charge against the marketing budget without any hope of generating a sale. Produce enough fraudulent clicks and a company can decimate a rival’s marketing budget.
3. Customer Ad Fraud
Last but not least is the customer group. This group is made up of people who willingly seek to harm advertisers they are unhappy with. This form of PPC ad fraud is not nearly as prevalent as the other two for the simple fact that it requires an understanding of the PPC model. How many retail customers even know how PPC ads work?
Nonetheless, customers can inflict harm on advertisers just as competitors can. By seeking out and clicking on ads, they generate charges that go against the company’s marketing budget. The higher the charges, the more it hurts.
At the end of the day, all PPC click fraud schemes boil down to generating false impressions. Click fraud is made possible by the way platforms charge for their services. It is part and parcel of an online model that still has not caught up with sophisticated scammers committed to perpetrating fraud.
