Click Fraud vs. Invalid Clicks: What’s the Difference? April 30, 2024 Chances are that if you’re involved in paid search marketing of any sort, you’ll have heard the terms invalid clicks, bot traffic, click fraud and maybe even ad fraud. And while you might have assumed that these terms are all pretty interchangeable, you might also be wondering what exactly makes up invalid traffic? It’s true that there are a range of nuances in the world of invalid clicks and fraudulent traffic. And that if you’re investing money in Google Ads or doing paid social such as Meta Ads it pays to know ..read more

How To Detect Click Fraud: Signs and Ways to Block Invalid Traffic April 24, 2024 In 2023 around $500 billion was spent globally on digital advertising. Search engine ads are now the biggest advertising medium, and by search engines we do mean Google. Reaching almost 5 billion globally, and accounting for over 81% of the global internet searches, the ad targeting potential of the world’s biggest search engine (and ad platform) is currently unmatched. Oh, that is unless we’re talking about Meta, aka Facebook. The social media behemoths are the equivalent of Google. Although they do l ..read more

What is CAPTCHA and Why Bots Solve it 99% of the Time April 17, 2024 What is CAPTCHA? CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human or not. This technology helps protect websites from spam and abuse by automated bots. CAPTCHAs usually require users to complete tasks that are simple for humans but challenging for computers. Common examples include typing letters and numbers from a distorted image, identifying objects in a series of photographs (like selecting all images with traffic lights), or solving a basic math problem. These tasks ..read more

How Does Google Ads Prevent Click Fraud? April 9, 2024 What is click fraud? Click fraud entails clicks on online ads that do not originate from real user interest. This is often caused by bots, click farms or competitors that click ads to generate revenue or cause harm to the advertiser. Click fraud is part of a larger category of “invalid clicks” that also includes accidental engagements and repeated clicks. Examples of clicks Google may deem invalid include: Manual clicks aimed at boosting your ad spend or to enrich website owners displaying your ads Clicks generated by automated ..read more

How to Exclude IP Addresses in Google Ads March 20, 2024 How to exclude IP addresses in Google Ads Follow these steps to add IP exclusions to your ad campaigns in Google Ads: Click “Campaigns” in the left navigation menu Select “Campaigns” again in the second navigation menu Select “Settings” in the tab menu at the top (note: you must select a Campaign in the top menu to see this option) Choose “Additional Settings” at the bottom of the page Open the “IP exclusions” section Enter the IP addresses you want to exclude Hit “Save” Location of “IP Exclusions” targeting feature in Go ..read more

Facebook Spam Bots: How to Get Rid of Annoying Bots February 8, 2024 In Q1 2024, Facebook (Meta) reported 3.07 billion monthly active users across the globe. However, Facebook also shared that 827 million accounts are fake – or bots – representing 4-5% of its active users, but the true numbers are likely much higher with the recent wave of AI tools now available. These automated entities can interfere with genuine engagement, distort performance metrics, harm advertisers and degrade the overall user experience. Learn how to identify spam bots on Facebook and how to prevent them ..read more

Facebook Spam Bots: How to Get Rid of Annoying Bots February 3, 2024 In Q1 2024, Facebook (Meta) reported 3.07 billion monthly active users across the globe. However, the platform’s immense popularity is not without its drawbacks, notably the proliferation of Facebook spam bots. Facebook also shared that 827 million accounts are fake – or bots – representing 4-5% of its active users, but the true numbers are likely much higher with the recent wave of AI tools now available. These automated entities can interfere with genuine engagement, distort performance metrics, harm advertisers ..read more

Poll Bots: Faking Poll Results With Bots January 18, 2024 In 2024, a crucial presidential election year in the United States, voters will encounter a deluge of polls. It’s important to be aware that many of these, particularly online, might be influenced by automated bots. These bots are programmed to sway public opinion on various topics or political candidates and are prevalent on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Discord, Reddit, and others. Their results are often picked up and circulated by news organizations across the country, amplifying their impact. With advancements in ..read more

All-New Features: See Our Biggest Release of the Year By Fraud Blocker's Senior Editor October 19, 2023 Today we’re announcing our biggest release of new features yet . This is our 6th release of the year with improvements across the board. Our mission is to help you identify and avoid wasted ad spend and all of these features aim to do just that. Here’s a list of features we just released today: "IP Clarity": See new scoring details for every IP Many of our clients have asked for more details on why we gave an IP a certain score and we now provide that through a unique po ..read more

[Press] Fraud Blocker Releases New Research Report on Ad Fraud September 26, 2023 LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — A new in-depth study from Juniper Research, the foremost experts in independent technology research and forecasting, found that 22% ($84 billion) of all online ad spend is lost due to ad fraud in 2023 and it is projected to reach over $170 billion in 5 years. Juniper Research’s latest 18-page research report provides comprehensive analysis and a 5-year forecast across online, social, video, mobile and in-app advertising fraud. It was generated from a dataset c ..read more