Click fraud refers to the targeted manipulation of the billing systems used by online advertisers. Artificially generated clicks on banner and text advertisements or affiliate links are the main means of deceit that this scheme relies on. Here, fraudsters generally exploit the ‘pay-per-click’ billing system, which only generates revenue when the user actively clicks on the advertisements. Depending on the fraudster’s intentions, artificial clicks that indicate no real interest in the ad in question may bear consequences for the advertiser or the publisher whose website the ad is running on. While those running the ads ‘only’ lose money due to the useless clicks they’ve purchased, advertising platforms appear to profit from click fraud, at least at first glance when the slogan ‘more clicks equals higher commission’ is understood. But publishers who’ve had instances of click fraud registered on their sites run the risk of being banned by advertising partners. Here are some incentives for simulating clicks:
- To obtain a service by means of fraud
- To gain a competitive edge
When, instead of being victims, publishers are responsible for the click fraud themselves, it usually means that this is an attempt to generate additional income. To this end, the click rates of ads posted on their own websites are artificially increased; this is either carried out manually or done with the help of software-supported measures. Furthermore, click fraud is also often used as a means of adding clicks to advertisements with certain keywords, increasing its sale price in the process. In both of these cases, the fraud comes at the expense of the advertising client. But the clients’ frustration is also shared by the likes of advertising networks, like Google AdWords or Bing ads. This is due to the fact that manipulating their billing system results in lasting damage to their clients’ trust. What makes matters worse, at least as far as the publishers are concerned, is that they’re faced with sanctions if it can be proven that they were responsible for the click fraud themselves.
For this reason, it’s often the case that cases of click rate manipulation can be traced back to competitors seeking an advantage. Other advertising operators may engage in click fraud in order to drain or completely exhaust the advertising budget of the competition. The goal of this method is to displace the competitors’ advertisements out of the search engine or any relevant websites. Publishers also sometimes try to manipulate competing sites through artificially generated clicks. The goal here is to incite the advertising network to ban the competition.
A special form of click fraud doesn’t focus on paid advertisements, and instead seeks to rake in artificial views on video portals, like YouTube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion. The aim of this method is to generate more coverage in order to increase ad revenue. Social networks like Facebook or Twitter have also experienced cases of click fraud; here, purchased Likes are at the center of the fraudsters’ attention.