What is Google click fraud?

[Mateo]

I’ve heard businesses mention google click fraud affecting ads, but I don’t fully understand how it works. How do companies detect and prevent it?

 

[Elisa]

Google click fraud is when someone intentionally clicks on ads without any real interest—often to drain a competitor’s budget or to generate illegitimate revenue. It leads to wasted ad spend and unreliable campaign performance.

 

[Jarwish]

Google click fraud is when someone intentionally clicks on Google ads repeatedly to waste an advertiser’s budget or increase earnings unfairly. It’s often done by competitors, bots, or malicious users to manipulate advertising costs and performance.

 

[Peter]

Google click fraud is when someone repeatedly clicks on pay-per-click (PPC) ads with fake or harmful intent, not because they’re interested in the product. These clicks are usually done by bots, competitors, or even hired click farms to waste the advertiser’s budget or manipulate ad performance. Google Ads uses automated systems to detect and block most fraudulent clicks, but some can still slip through.

 

[Alexender]

Google click fraud is a form of internet advertisement fraud in which false or null clicks are created on Google Ads in order to squander an advertisers budget or attempt to influence advertisement performance.

It normally occurs when bots or automated scripts or even competitors repeatedly and repeatedly click on advertisements with no intention to purchase. Fraud via clicks may raise the expenses, manipulate campaign analytics, and decrease the return on investment (ROI). Advertisers must also monitor traffic patterns and implement prevention mechanisms, such as IP blockage and conversion path, even though Google is automated and manualized to identify and reject invalid clicks.