How Does Fake Bot Clicks Lead Generation Impact Your ROI?

You must have heard of fake bot clicks, right? 

But what are bot clicks? 

They're automated clicks on ads generated by software programs instead of real people. 

This type of ad fraud is becoming increasingly common. What’s more? It can have a significant impact on your lead-generation efforts.

Fake bot clicks can be hard to detect. They're designed to look like genuine clicks from potential customers, but in reality, they're 100% fake and meant to elude. 

In fact, some estimates suggest that almost 40% of all web traffic comes from fake users or invalid traffic (IVT). 

That means many of the clicks you get on your paid ads might be fake. As you can already guess, the consequences of not detecting fake bot clicks can be severe. 

According to a study by the University of Baltimore, ad fraud costs businesses$35 billion globally. 

If you're not careful, your digital ad budget could go toward fake traffic that doesn't generate sales. That's why it's crucial to recognize and prevent fake bot clicks in lead generation. 

Hence, we've developed this comprehensive article to help you navigate this severe issue. 

The following sections will explore the major types of fraudulent clicks and their consequences. We’ll then discuss tried-and-true methods to pinpoint and stop fake bot clicks. As a result, you’ll be able to get the most out of your advertising budget.

What Are the 3 Types of Fake Bot Clicks?

It's important to know the different types of fake bot clicks to better understand them. Hence, let’s discuss the three most common fraudulent bots and how they can impact lead generation.

1. Click Farms

These are operations where people are paid to click on ads. The process often happens in large numbers. In fact, click farms can generate up to 100,000 clicks per hour. 

However, they're not genuine. Moreover, they can quickly use your advertising budget without producing accurate results. Hence, they’re pretty harmful to your business.

2. Botnets

Botnets are networks of infected computers controlled by a central server. The server can direct the computers to click on ads, which gives the impression of genuine clicks from potential customers. 

As such, botnets can generate large volumes of fake clicks and be difficult to detect.

3. Ad Fraud

This broader term refers to any type of fraudulent activity related to online advertising, including fake clicks. It can also define other types of fraudulent behavior, such as impression fraud and click injection. 

Ad fraud can be perpetrated by bots, humans, or both. However, it can be challenging to detect and prevent.

What Are the Consequences of Fake Bot Clicks?

Now that you know the major types of fake bot clicks, let’s move to the next part. 

First, you must understand the potential consequences of falling victim to them. In this section, we'll look at some of the major impacts of fake bot clicks on your lead generation efforts.

1. Wasted Advertising Budget

One of the most apparent consequences of fake bot clicks is the waste of your advertising cost. Your budget can quickly be used up with fraudulent traffic without generating genuine leads. 

Hence, it significantly decreases your ROI. Forbes predicts that online ad spending will reach$1 trillion by 2026, which is a golden opportunity for crooks!

2. Decreased Credibility and Trust

Fake bot clicks can also harm your brand's reputation. As such, it can decrease consumer trust in your business. Imagine a scenario where your target audience discovers that bots are clicking on your ads instead of real people. 

They may even begin to question the authenticity of your business. In fact, 69% of consumers say they’re more likely to trust brands that use 3rd-party verification for ad viewability and fraud prevention.

3. Inaccurate Lead Data

When fake bot clicks are present in your lead generation efforts, they can skew your lead data. Thus, it negatively impacts your lead-gen strategies. This is because the data you collect will be inaccurate and misleading. 

As a result, making informed decisions about your marketing campaigns becomes difficult. 

Here’s an interesting stat to corroborate our claims: Bot traffic can account for as much as 37% of all traffic to digital ads. 

4. Reduced Impact of Email Marketing

Email marketers face the brunt of fraudulent activities, particularly regarding lead generation. You may advertise to raise awareness for your brand and garner 24,000 impressions. This data shows you may run similar ads with a sign-up form. 

However, you notice that a few sign-ups. This could be because bots generated a significant portion of the initial impressions!

You may have received sign-ups during the second ad run in another scenario. But how many of them are genuine? 

With human-operated bot farms, the individuals responsible for these fraudulent activities can fill out numerous forms all day. They may be downloading your lead magnets without interest in your offerings. 

The outcome of these criminal activities can include:

• Leads that consume your company's time to manage them
• Deceptive analytics that skews future ad planning
• Access for fraudsters to free accounts and trials
• Earnings to crooks via CPL performance marketing
• Damaged email sender scores, resulting in spam complaints

To combat these issues, you must implement effective strategies to prevent bot activity and other forms of ad fraud. 

Doing so can safeguard your company's reputation, save ad budget, and generate more accurate and trustworthy lead data.

How Can You Detect Fake Bot Clicks?

Yes, the prevalence of fake bot clicks continues to rise. Hence, it's become increasingly crucial for businesses to understand how to detect and prevent fraudulent activity. 

So, in this section, we’ll answer two vital questions: How can you tell fake clicks? How are fake clicks on ads identified? So, let’s dive right in!

1. Analyzing Website Traffic Patterns

Bots often generate traffic patterns that differ from those of real users. So, it's beneficial to look for unusual traffic patterns. Check for signs like sudden spikes or dips in traffic. It can be an effective way to detect bot activity. 

For example, a rapid rise in traffic to a particular page could be a sign of bot activity.

2. Identifying Suspicious IP Addresses

Checking IP addresses for suspicious activity can also help you identify fake bot clicks. 

For example, let’s assume you notice frequent clicks from the same IP address. This could signal fraudulent acts. 

Additionally, there are certain IP addresses that are known to be associated with botnets. 

3. Monitoring Click-through Rates (CTRs)

Tracking CTRs for your ads and campaigns can help you identify sudden or abnormal changes. Weird occurrences usually indicate fake bot clicks. 

For example, say you notice a sudden increase in CTR for a specific ad or campaign. This could be a sign of fake bot clicks.

4. Utilizing Third-party Fraud Detection Tools

Various tools are available to help detect fake bot clicks and other forms of ad fraud. 

For example, Google Analytics provides reports on bot traffic. The stats allow you to filter out known bot traffic. Other fraud detection software, such as Forensiq and DoubleVerify, can also effectively identify fake bot clicks.

Several intriguing examples of how companies have utilized the above methods exist. Some include tracking user behavior to identify patterns that bots typically follow. 

For example, bots usually follow a set path through a website. This path can involve scrolling down a page or clicking on a link. 

Therefore, tracking these patterns can help identify bot activity. 

How Can You Prevent Fake Bot Clicks?

Fake bot clicks can be a costly problem for your business. They can drain your advertising budget and negatively impact lead-generation efforts. So, your following two questions may be – How can I stop fake clicks? Or how can I stop bot clicks? 

Fortunately, there are several measures that you can take to prevent fake bot clicks from occurring in the first place. Let’s check them out!

1. Using ‘Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart’ (CAPTCHA)

First up is the most effective measure. Implement CAPTCHA and other security measures on your website. Google reported that embedding CAPTCHA reduced bot traffic by 99.9%. 

Additionally, the reCAPTCHA adaptive risk analysis engine can detect attacker patterns by analyzing their behavior across multiple pages on your website. By checking the reCAPTCHA admin console, you can see the distribution of scores and detailed information on the top 10 actions taken on your site. 

This helps you identify the specific pages targeted by bots and assess the suspicious traffic on those pages.

2. Adhering to Industry Standards and Best Practices

Next up, we strongly advise you to follow industry-recognized guidelines and practices for ad campaign management and security. 

How? 

It ensures that your ad campaigns are monitored and managed effectively—and that too, according to global standards!

3. Conducting Regular Audits

Lastly, carry out frequent audits and analyses of your lead data. This can be effective in preventing fake bot clicks. By regularly reviewing such stats for accuracy, you can identify any sources of fraud. 

Hence, you can take corrective action to prevent future occurrences. In fact, 79% of advertisers claim that regular audits and analysis of traffic quality help reduce ad fraud and fake bot clicks.

4. Bonus Tips

Here are a few bonus tips to ensure that your ad campaigns are secured against the threat of click bots negatively impacting your lead-gen results:

Monitoring Competitors

When running a digital advertising campaign, it's essential to monitor your competitors in search results to measure your success. Remember that your online competition may differ from your offline competitors. Hence, be mindful of the domains you monitor regularly.

Reducing Ad Visibility

The more you customize and control your advertising campaigns, the less likely malicious attackers or competitors will click on your ads and engage in click fraud. To limit ad visibility, utilize strategies like device targeting, long-tail search terms, and geo-targeting.

Monitoring Campaigns

The most effective PPC advertising campaigns require daily maintenance and attention. By monitoring them regularly, you can improve their performance and more quickly identify potential click fraud.

Investing in Outbound Marketing

When you implement outbound marketing campaigns such as cold emailing and calling, you can reach your target customers directly and gain 10X more conversions.

Safeguard Your Lead Generation Efforts from Fake Bot Clicks

It’s no secret that the threat of fake bot clicks is rising. Hence, it's becoming increasingly critical for businesses to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. To get started, you can follow the methods outlined in our article. Also, stay vigilant and up-to-date on the latest trends and techniques for pinpointing and stopping invalid traffic.