Click fraud protection for small businesses

In today’s digital advertising landscape, small businesses rely on platforms like Google and Meta to reach new customers and grow their brands, investing in paid ad searches to help convert product interest to sales.

Where a business uses PPC (pay-per-click) accounts for paid ads, the risk of click fraud follows, threatening to drain ad budgets without delivering genuine leads or conversions.

The problem? How can a business truly know if an ad click is genuine, or possible click fraud?

What is click fraud?

Click fraud is essentially where either humans or bots click on any paid search, display or video advert without any real interest in the product or service being advertised, generating invalid clicks on pay-per-click (PPC) ads such as Google or Meta Ads.

Are there different types of click fraud?

The term click fraud encompasses various types, each with their own tactics and motives.

As small businesses are likely to have tighter budgets on ad spend, they are more susceptible to:

• Competitor clicks - an action where a competitor repeatedly clicks on ads with the aim of depleting the businesses ad budget, often for competitive advantage

• Bot clicks - an automated program designed to mimic human behaviour by repeatedly clicking on ads, skewing any reliable ad performance metrics to measure success

• Accidental clicks - whilst not always associated with intentional fraud, accidental clicks still cost money, reducing the businesses ad budget without any real engagement

What is the cost implication of click fraud?

It’s estimated that businesses lose billions each year due to click fraud. In 2022, global ad fraud, which includes click fraud, was projected to cost businesses over $80 billion (source Association of National Advertisers), and this number is expected to rise as digital advertising continues to grow. For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), click fraud can account for as much as 20% of their ad budgets, depending on the industry.

How does click fraud affect small businesses?

Click fraud can quickly drain a small businesses ad budget by charging them for clicks that don’t come from real customers, meaning their hard-earned money is spent without bringing in sales or leads.

Since small businesses often work with limited marketing budgets, every pound or dollar wasted on fake clicks reduces their ability to reach genuine potential customers, which can lead to higher advertising costs and a lower return on investment, forcing them to either scale back on ads or risk overspending.

In the long run, click fraud not only limits their growth but also puts them at a disadvantage against larger competitors with more resources to absorb these losses.

Doesn’t Google & Meta automatically protect from click fraud?

Yes, Google and Meta both have foundational, built-in protections to help prevent click fraud, using methods such as machine learning and data analysis to detect unusual patterns, such as rapid repeated clicks or clicks from suspicious IP addresses.

The downside? These protections aren’t foolproof and certain types of click fraud, like clicks from human-operated click farms or complex bot networks, can sometimes bypass the built-in filters.

Where invalid activity is detected, Google should filter out these clicks, ensuring that you’re not charged, but it’s worth noting that some clicks may slip through their detection and protection filters, leaving you in a position where you may be able to claim a refund from Google, however it’s not a guaranteed refund, which ultimately affects your ad budget.

For small businesses that rely on every pound or dollar in their ad budget, these small losses can add up, which is why many opt to use third-party click fraud protection.

Are there actions you can take without using third-party software?

There are a few out-of-the-box actions you can take without spending money on additional software, leveraging built-in settings in both Google Ads and Meta:

• Leverage IP exclusion lists in the Google Ads dashboard to identify and protect against suspicious IP addresses that generate a high number of ad clicks without conversion

• Both Google and Meta have features built-in that allow you to protect against ad clicks that fall outside of your geo-targeted locations, allowing you to re-target ad spend in the right locations

• Use Google’s keyword targeting to prevent ads from showing for searches that don’t match buyers intent (negative keywords), which can help remove costs associated with irrelevant clicks

• Review placement reports regularly to see where your ads featured and check for low-quality or suspicious ad placements

What are the benefits of using click fraud software?

Third-party solutions focus heavily on protection, rather than the actual ad performance and placement, which means that when you pay for third-party software, you’re getting enhanced features and analytics you don’t get from PPC accounts.

Whilst there are a host of solutions available in the market, each comes with their own list of pros and cons and we’ve found that as a small business ourselves, Hitprobe has been the most cost and threat effective solution we’ve tried to date and comes packed with features such as:

• Deep device fingerprinting, allowing you to detect and instantly prevent repeat clicks at device level

• Multi-layer blocking

• VPN, crawler & bot detection, on every session

• IP & network session and reputation checks

• Geolocation settings

• Bounced visit block settings

• Custom threat settings giving you the ultimate flexibility

It’s worth noting that PPC accounts don’t typically use device fingerprinting, which creates a hard stop at risk detection at IP level, rather than device and the individual behind it.

What are the limitations/drawbacks of using click fraud software?

Whilst there are plenty of pros to using click fraud software, there are a few limitations which businesses should be aware of before making a buying decision.

Google Ads has limited IP blocking capabilities, only allowing 500 IP addresses per campaign. This could be restrictive for larger businesses, but for small to medium sized businesses, this shouldn't be an issue you'll face often.

Cost can also be an issue for small businesses, but the market for solutions is rich with options that offer more features and functions for your money. When making a choice, its always worth factoring in your ad spend against the cost of the solution - not all small businesses will have large ad spend budgets, so paying for an expensive solution doesn't always make sense.

Is click fraud software difficult to implement?

Gone are the days of needing lengthy technical support from developers, we found we could integrate Hitprobe in a matter of minutes, following their useful guides to get started.

Most competitors in the market offer quick and seamless setup, without the need for technical assistance, all by integrating a client-side JavaScript tag (the person viewing the web page associated with an ad) on each web page you need to track, which allows for further actions such as tracking conversion.

Conclusion: Is click fraud protection software worth the cost for small businesses?

Absolutely, software like Hitprobe can be deployed in minutes and offers instant protection against all types of click fraud, protecting your businesses ad budget and ultimately, bottom line.

Hitprobe offers peace of mind that its advanced detection tools prevent wasted clicks and offer immediate savings, improving your ad campaigns ROI, offers actionable insights and analytics and works 24/7 without the need for constant human decision making.

You can read Hitprobe’s complete guide to click fraud here, or sign up and take advantage of their 20% off offer using code OFFER20 here.