Search ad fraud is harder to commit because it involves several steps. But bad guys now have sophisticated bots that can execute all those steps, while pretending to be a human user and passing fake tracking parameters back to the advertiser.

1. Search Ad Fraud
101
Dr. Augustine Fou
acfou [at] mktsci.com
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
February 2014
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Augustine Fou

2. Types of Ad Fraud
Impressions
Clicks
Leads
Sales
(CPM fraud)
(CPC fraud)
(CPL fraud)
(CPA fraud)
Bots type
search queries
to bring up
search ads and
then click on
the ads to earn
share of CPC.
Bot or low
wage workers
fill in lead
forms with real
addresses and
get paid bounty
per lead.
Fake sites set
up to do cookie
stuffing or trick
users to click
on affiliate
links to earn rev
share.
(CPV for video)
Botnets
generate fake
pageviews
which produce
ad impression
“inventory” that
is sold into ad
exchanges.
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Augustine Fou

3. Definition of Click Fraud
Click Fraud and Invalid Traffic
You may have heard the terms “click fraud” and “invalid clicks” and
wondered how or if they are different. Here is a definition of each:
Click fraud refers to clicks generated with malicious or fraudulent intent.
Invalid traffic includes both clicks and impressions on AdWords ads that
Google suspects to not be the result of genuine user interest. This covers
intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks and other
mechanically generated traffic. Although advertisers are not charged for
these clicks or impressions, this traffic may still result in valuable site visits
and conversions.
Source: Google Ad Traffic Quality
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Augustine Fou

4. Motive for Click Fraud
There are two primary incentives for committing
click fraud:
• AdWords advertisers may try to attack
competitors by raising their costs or exhausting
their budget early in the day.
• AdSense publishers may click ads appearing
on their own websites in order to inflate
revenue.
Source: Google Ad Traffic Quality
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Augustine Fou

5. How Click Fraud Occurs
The most common methods for carrying out click
fraud attacks are:
• Manual clicking
• Click farms (hiring individuals to manually click ads)
• Pay-to-click sites (pyramid schemes created by publishers)
• Click bots (software to automate clicking)
• Botnets (hijacked computers utilized by click bots)
Source: Google Ad Traffic Quality
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Augustine Fou

6. How Search (CPC)
Click Fraud Works
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Augustine Fou

7. Choose High CPC Keywords
olay.com
homemadesimple.com
> 100,000 monthly searches
avg position 1 – 10
sort by highest avg CPC
“cosmetic face lift”
“residential home cleaning”
$10.84 CPC
$9.95 CPC
Source: iSpionage Nov 2013
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Augustine Fou

8. Biggest PPC Spenders
Insurance est. Spending:
-
Statefarm.com - $46M /yr
Geico.com - $44M
Progressive.com - $34M
Esurance.com - $28M
Allstate.com - $25M
USAA.com - $21M
Many CPCs from $60 - $78
Retailers est. Spending:
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Walmart.com - $48M /yr
Sears.com - $18M annually
Macys.com - $11M per year
JCPenney.com - $9.6M
CPCs range from $15 - $63
Augustine Fou

9. Bots Type Search Term
healthsiteproduc tionalways.com
buy eye cream online
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Augustine Fou

10. Bots Click Search Ad
Olay.com ad
in #1 position
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Augustine Fou

11. Redirect Link(s)
Known blackhat
technique to hide real
referrer and replace
with faked referrer.
SIX (6) redirects
before ending on the
landing page
See how-to:
http://www.blackhatworld.com/
blackhat-seo/cloaking-contentgenerators/36830-cloakingredirect-referer.html
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Augustine Fou

12. Pass Fake URL Trackers
http://www.olay.com/skincare-products/OlayProX?utm_source=msn&utm
_medium=cpc&utm_camp
aign=Olay_Search_Deskto
p_Category+Interest+Prod
uct.Phrase&utm_term=eye
%20cream&utm_content=
TZsrSzFz_eye%20cream_
p_2990456911
Click thru URL
passing fake source
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Augustine Fou

13. Search (CPC)
Click Fraud Sizing
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Augustine Fou

14. Search Ad Clicks
20 - 40%
fraudulent, accidental, wasted
Source: Adometry Click Fraud Report 1H 2013
IAB: FY 2012 Search Ad Spend = $16.8B
• Search ad fraud is a bit more involved to commit and usually
occurs on “search partner” sites (not the main search sites)
• Bad guys set up sites with no content, execute searches with
lucrative keywords, and click the ads with bots
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Augustine Fou

15. Click Fraud by Qtr
20% of $16.8B in
search ad spending
could be due to
fraudulent clicks.
Equivalent to:
$3.4B in
search ad
CPC waste
per year
Source: ClickForensics 2011
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Augustine Fou

16. Bot Clicks vs Humans
Humans actually click
on buttons and menu
items (mouse moves
and clicks)
Bots don’t bother
disguising their click
locations and don’t
show mouse traces.
Source: Spider.io Feb 2013
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Augustine Fou

17. Before and After
BEFORE
AFTER
Top 2 “good guys” = 76%
Top 5 “good guys” = 94%
18% of spend shifted from fraudulent websites to “top 5” good guys
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Augustine Fou

18. What Advertisers
Can/Should Do
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Augustine Fou

19. Areas of Optimization
30%
40%
30%
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targeting
improving
optimization
delivery
viewability
bots /not seen by humans
waste
reduction
Augustine Fou

20. Low Hanging Fruit
The most immediate, direct impact on ROI comes from reducing waste
25% On-Target Delivery
(Nielsen)
54% Not In View
(comScore)
82% Ignored
(Harris Interactive)
23% Ad Blocked
(PageFair)
24 – 29% confirmed bot
(Solve Media)
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Augustine Fou

21. Digital Ad Forensics Process
Preliminary Scan
Sizing of
ad fraud
Forensic Analysis
Maintenance
• Technology Tools
• Statistical analysis
• Budget shifts
• Further optimization
Implementation
FREE
$$$
$
Preliminary analysis of
paid campaigns and
analytics to determine
magnitude of the ad
fraud impacting client.
Creating recommended
list of
changes, including list
of sites to exclude in
each ad channel.
Subscribe to
triangulated, cross-industry
database of “ad fraud
offenders” to continuously
update blacklists and
whitelists.
Augustine Fou
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22. Dr. Augustine Fou – Technical Forensics
“I advise clients on optimizing
advertising across all channels. One
main area of focus is reducing ad waste
due to fraud – fake impressions, clicks,
leads, and sales – which produces
immediate ROI.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/augustinefou
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@acfou
Augustine Fou

23. Related Articles
Digital Ad Fraud Briefing
By: Augustine Fou December 2013
Fake YouTube Videos
By: Augustine Fou, December 2013
Ad Fraud Fighting Techniques
By: Augustine Fou October 2013
Fake Linkedin Profiles
By: Augustine Fou, December 2013
How Display Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, May 2013
Fake Facebook Profiles
By: Augustine Fou, Dec 2013
How Click Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, November 2013
Fake Twitter Accounts
By: Augustine Fou, August 2013
The Magnitude of Digital Ad Fraud
By: Augustine Fou, November 2013
An Ecosystem of Digital Ad Fraud
By: Augustine Fou, October 2013
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Augustine Fou