What Are The Main Types Of Click Fraud?

Click Fraud Isn't One Problem, It's Several.

When people talk about click fraud, they're often referring to a single issue: someone (or something) clicking your ads with bad intentions. Click fraud actually shows up in multiple ways and each requires a different kind of prevention.

Here are the main types you should know about.

Bot Click Fraud

This is the most common type. These are automated programs that simulate real users clicking your ads. Bots can:

• Drain your daily budget in hours.
• Generate fake impressions and engagement.
• Disrupt conversion data and mislead Google's algorithms.

While Google filters out some invalid activity, most bots evolve too quickly to catch in time. Advanced fraud tools (like ours) identify abnormal click patterns long before your spend is wasted.

‍Competitor Click Fraud

Competitors sometimes click your ads to exhaust your budget and push your ads offline for the day. This can look like:

• Repeated clicks from the same IP address.
• Unusal spikes in enagement from specific regions.
• Poor-quality traffic that never converts.

You'll often notice it if you run in competitive local markets or industries with high CPCs (like law, HVAC, or pest control).

Publisher or Affiliate Fraud

In display and affiliate marketing, some publishers inflate engagement on their own sites to earn more ad revenue. They might:

• Hire click farms to mimic user activity
• Use scripts to auto-refresh pages
• Layer ads invisibly ("ad stacking")

This type of fraud doesn't just waste money, it also damages your placement data. That makes it more difficult to find legitimate, high-performing placements later.

Click Farms and Human Fraud

Not all fraud is automated. Click farms use low-cost labor to manually click on ads or fill out intake forms. Since these actions come from real devices, they're harder to detect through normal filters. Signs you're affected:

• Sudden spike in clicks without conversions.
• Unusual traffic from foreign IPs or mobile networks
• High bounce rates across multiple campaigns

Accidental or Irrelevant Clicks‍

Sometimes, clicks aren't malicious they're just useless. Users accidentally tap your ad, or YouTube placements show before unrelated gaming or kids' videos. Even though these clicks aren't fraudulent in intent, they still waste your ad dollars. That's why we audit for both fraudulent and wasted spend.

Stop Letting Invisible Clicks Win

Whether it's bots, competitors, or irrelevant placements, click fraud silently drains your ad performance. You don't have to just "trust" Google's filters. You can verify and eliminate waste before it happens. Or let us do it for you. Calculate your unique ROI today.