07 Dec 7 Types Of Ad Fraud That Can Hurt Your Business

Ad fraud is a well-known threat to digital advertisers, but it’s not always clear what kind of ad fraud you’re facing. Here are some examples of the different types of ad fraud and how they can affect your business.

1. Traffic fraud

The most common type of ad fraud is traffic fraud, in which the advertiser pays for traffic that doesn’t exist. This happens when a website or app generates fake clicks on ads, or when a bot clicks on your ads to generate revenue and/or damage your reputation.

There are several ways to prevent this type of ad fraud: You can use third-party verification services to prove that the traffic you’re paying for is real; implement advanced anti-click bot technologies that detect automated clicking behaviour; work with partners who have strong anti-fraud policies in place (like Google). If you suspect any kind of fraudulent activity, report it immediately so it can be stopped before it damages your business.

2. Click injection, click spam, and click flooding

Click injection is when a bot clicks on an ad multiple times. This happens when a malicious actor (or even just a really impatient person) enters into an ad inventory auction, bids for the ad space and then immediately un-bids after winning it. The effect of this is that you are paying for the impression, but no one sees the actual page. This can lead to wasted spending by advertisers who think they have been successful in driving traffic to their websites.

These bots also have other ways of making money off publishers’ ads: click spamming and flooding. Click spamming refers to bots that click on ads multiple times in order to generate revenue for themselves or those who provide them with instructions — often referred to as affiliate marketing programs or pay-per-click programs — while flooding refers specifically to malicious bots clicking on ads too quickly so they aren’t seen by humans, which means no one sees your message and no conversions occur (and thus no money).

3. Invalid traffic (IVT)

Invalid traffic (IVT) is the practice of generating fake traffic to a website or app. A bot, human or both can generate IVT using a variety of methods. For example, bots can be programmed to drive up impressions by clicking on ads and completing transactions through landing pages—not for any real reason other than to make ad spending to go up.

Bots are not always necessary for IVT; humans can also be used to generate fraudulent activity using such techniques as clickjacking and cookie swapping. Clickjacking refers to users clicking on an ad without realizing they’re actually being redirected by the advertiser’s code. This often happens when an advertiser includes hidden links within their ads that redirect visitors away from their intended destination if they “click” too fast or without reading carefully before clicking. Another method is cookie swapping: advertisers create cookies with unique IDs so they can track each user across multiple devices, but sometimes these IDs get mixed up or duplicated when multiple people use the same device (like public Wi-Fi).

4. Domain spoofing

Domain spoofing is a form of ad fraud in which the domain name is registered with the intention of selling it to a buyer who wants to impersonate a legitimate site. The domain may be used in a phishing scam, or it could be used as part of an attack on your website called malvertising. In this latter scenario, malicious actors will use ads that appear as if they come from your company’s ad server and are displayed on legitimate websites you’ve partnered with. These ads direct users back to their own site where they can install malware or collect personal information such as credit card numbers and social security numbers.

5. Attribution theft

Attribution theft is a type of fraud in which a fraudster hijacks a legitimate user’s device ID or IP address to generate fraudulent impressions. Attribution theft can be used to inflate the number of impressions on a page and thereby increase payouts, or it can be used by bots and malware to generate fake clicks on an ad. This latter type of attribution theft is especially dangerous because it can cause advertisers to unknowingly pay for invalid clicks from bots that have infected devices.

6. Frequency capping and bot-driven impressions

Frequency capping is a way to limit the number of times a user sees an ad. If you don’t use frequency capping, bots can keep clicking on your ads and getting paid for it. This costs you money because your bot visitors aren’t real people.

Bot-driven impressions are fraudulent ads that are shown on websites that were never visited by humans (and therefore weren’t valuable). Sometimes this happens when bots try to imitate human behaviour or use real users’ browsers without their knowledge – but if you have no way of knowing where these impressions came from, it’s impossible for marketers to evaluate their value of them based on quality metrics like clickthrough rate or conversion rate!

7. Bot-generated clicks, or bot fraud

Bot fraud: The most common type of ad fraud, bot-generated clicks are when an automated program (i.e., a bot) clicks on an ad. It’s designed to trick advertisers into thinking its human traffic is real and therefore worth paying for ads.

Bots can be hard to detect because they look just like humans or other bots in their browsing behaviour—except that they don’t actually do anything except click on ads all day long! These bots aren’t necessarily malicious, but many botnets are used for nefarious purposes such as stealing your credit card information or spreading viruses through shared download links (also known as “malvertising”).

Bot fraud can be a problem for publishers and advertisers alike because it costs money to place those ads; especially if those clicks turn out not to be human after all!

Know ad frauds out there so you can protect your business

Digital ad fraud, in general, is a serious problem that can cost you money. Fraudulent traffic (non-human) can be generated through a variety of ways, including bots that mimic human behaviour and generate clicks on ads or are simply used as clickbait. As a result, legitimate users are not exposed to your ads and you don’t get the impressions and clicks you paid for.

To protect yourself from digital ad fraud:

• Work with an ad ops partner who understands the problem and knows how to combat it.
• Use a fraud detection solution that provides insights into what is happening on your site(s) so you have actionable data to mitigate risk before it becomes too great.

Conclusion

Ad fraud is a serious issue and we hope this post has helped you to understand the different types of ad fraud out there and how they can affect your business. If you’re looking for more information about ad fraud or want to learn about our ways to combat it, get in touch with our ad ops specialists!