Click Fraud Protection

PROFIT THROUGH PERFORMANCE ™

For many companies, click fraud consumes between 15 and 50 percent of advertising budgets. SearchAdNetwork protects against click fraud, eliminating this wasted ad spend.

Definition

Click fraud refers to any kind of click received from a cost per click search engine that is generated artificially through human or technological means with the sole purpose of creating a debiting click. This results in zero possibility for a sale or conversion to occur.

It is estimated that over 15% of budget goes to click fraud—and in some highly competitive markets that figure reaches nearly 50%.

It is our pleasure at SearchAdNetwork to offer extensive click fraud reporting mechanisms for our clients through Media Agent, our advanced tracking and reporting technology system. We use the data extracted from Media Agent to actively debate with engines about the quality of traffic and ensure that our clients are consistently receiving legitimate clicks and leads or sales.

Solutions implemented within Media Agent

Media Agent detects and documents click fraud by engine, date range and keyword on the following levels:

Blocked IP
Blocked Robots
Multiple/Duplicate Clicks
Region-based Filtering

Blocked IP

This filtering technique is applied by comparing the incoming click’s IP address with the available list of blocked IPs. If the click is found to be originating from the same IP address, it is not registered as valid and is logged as a fraudulent click for future reference. The list of blocked IP addresses available within Media Agent has been accumulated by observing clicks on a daily basis and blocking them on the suspect of wrongful clicks. We have also developed and continue to maintain an up-to-date list of anonymous proxy servers and penalize their user sessions.

Many search engines have implemented their own strategies to prevent click fraud; however, some search engines record all clicks and charge clients based on the total registered clicks. To protect our clients from these scenarios, we have implemented extensive IP address-based reports on our backend system. These IPs are restricted from recording clicks. Our clients are only able to view legitimate clicks and leads on their SearchAdNetwork reports.

Blocked Robots

Robots are special kinds of user agents* that are not directly human controlled; rather, robots are autonomously-acting programs, which search the web for information. Some click fraudsters create complex robots to generate thousands of clicks. SearchAdNetwork applies the blocked robot filtration method to fight this type of click fraud.

In this method we have a set of user agents that are recognized as robots responsible for click fraud. An incoming click’s user agent is compared to the list of user agents or blocked robots; if the click is found to contain any user agent that matches with the available list of blocked user agents, the click is restricted from getting registered within Media Agent.

Multiple/Duplicate Clicks

Every search engine has its own process of click registration. SearchAdNetwork's click registration process records clicks in much the same manner, restricting clicks on IP address and time factors.

Region-based Filtering

Certain regions of the world contribute to the majority of click fraud. Clicks originating from regions like Eastern Europe, Africa and some Asian countries have been identified as fraudulent. To prevent region-based click fraud, we have introduced a region-based filtering process. There are certain ranges of IP addresses that belong to these suspect countries. Any click originating from that IP range is considered fraudulent and blocked. In this manner, the clicks are filtered based on IP address and region.

Click fraud is a grave problem, one which we at SearchAdNetwork take very seriously. We are dedicated to ensuring our clients are only being charged for legitimate traffic. The processes we have in place naturally help our clients’ achieve their bottom line objective—maximum ROI.

If you have any questions regarding the above please feel free to contact us.

SearchAdNetwork ®
info@SearchAdNetwork.com
Toll Free: 1-877-4-MAX-ROI

* A user agent is the client application used with a particular network protocol; the phrase is most commonly used in reference to those that access the Internet. Web user agents span a wide range—from web browsers to search engine crawlers ("spiders") and screen readers to Braille browsers used by those with disabilities.