You Asked, We Answered: Most Searched Questions about Ad Fraud

It makes sense to be curious about the rising risks of ad fraud and want to know how mobile app fraud prevention is done, whether you’re a user, publisher, or advertiser. The world of digital marketing is evolving, and with it, so are the scammers. They are growing more cunning and developing new ways to trick marketers.

In addition to implementing mobile app fraud prevention strategies, it’s important to keep up with the terminology and methods that scammers employ. We have answered the most frequently asked questions regarding ad fraud to help you make sure of this.

What is ad fraud?

Ad fraud aims to trick advertisers into parting with their money and using fictitious traffic to manipulate their data. Typically, ad fraudsters utilize bots to fool marketers into believing they are receiving real users. Advertisers need more income from effective traffic as a result. Advertisers also continue to invest in bot-impacted ad campaigns because they believe their advertisements are effective due to the inflated traffic. By the end of 2023, it is expected that the entire cost of ad fraud would have increased to $100 billion from $81 billion in 2022. (https://www.businessofapps.com/ads/ad-fraud/research/ad-fraud-statistics/)

How do you detect bot traffic?

Common techniques for spotting bot activity on websites, applications, and APIs include the following:

• Abnormally high page views
• Abnormally high bounce rate
• Inflated traffic from unknown locations
• Abnormal session durations
• Increased number of junk conversions

What is Impression Ad Fraud?

An advertisement’s impression is the total number of times it was shown, whether or not it was watched. Impression fraud occurs when con artists fabricate a website and list it on an ad exchange. These websites use bots to generate impressions for advertisers who purchase ad space. The advertisers mistakenly think their ad campaign is receiving traffic because of the inflated impression statistics. In actuality, though, the advertisements draw automated traffic, and the fraudsters profit from this bogus traffic.

What is Incent Fraud?

This kind of fraud involves using incentive platforms by dishonest affiliates to run non-incentive campaigns. As a result, they draw in low-quality users who don’t care about the app itself and only install it to get incentives. This method is typically applied to improve low CR ratios, boost install volumes, moderate the calibre of user acquisition, or boost profits.

What is Click Fraud?

One ad fraud tactic is click fraud, in which automated programs mimic human behaviour by clicking on advertisements. These clicks from bots also result in app installs, conversions, or site visits regarding mobile advertising.

In pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, publishers are compensated according to the number of clicks generated by an advertisement on their website. The fraudsters use bot traffic to inflate the click-through rate when an advertiser places an ad on a phoney website. Moreover, while the fraudulent publishers profit from fake clicks, the advertisers lose money on ineffective traffic.

What are device Farms?

This is one of the more antiquated methods of stopping mobile app fraud prevention, commonly called click and phone farms. One method of mobile app fraud prevention is through device farms, in which scammers physically carry out actions (such as clicks, installs, and other forms of engagement) to trick the advertiser into thinking they are authentic. New device IDs and IP addresses conceal their malicious activity.

Conclusion

Fraudsters are constantly devising new ways to trick advertisers and take their advertising budgets. However, working with a provider of ad fraud detection & mobile app fraud prevention solutions like mFilterIt is important if you want to safeguard your advertising campaigns against advanced bots and cutting-edge fraud tactics. 

We use AI, ML, and data science capabilities to detect invalid traffic on your ad campaigns and take real-time action to ensure cleaner traffic.

To learn how we combat ad fraud, contact our experts today!