Michael Green | Mar 5 2023
The issue of click fraud poses a significant challenge in Google Ads and Bing Ads campaigns, it’s disrupting advertising efforts and diminishing return on investment. Given the pivotal role of the platforms plays in the digital marketing strategies of countless businesses, understanding the variances between click fraud on each platform is critical. This article examines the measures implemented by both Google Ads and Bing Ads to prevent and detect fraudulent activities.
Click fraud is when someone clicks on a PPC ad on purpose to harm the business. People do this to reduce the company’s advertising budget or to make money for themselves. It’s tough to spot click fraud, and it can waste most of the ad budget and lower the ROI.
Google Ads is the big cheese in the online advertising world, so it’s no surprise that it gets hit with a lot of click fraud. This is mainly because there are more advertisers and some keywords cost a pretty penny per click. On the other hand, Bing Ads has a smaller pool of users and lower CPC, making it less appealing to scammers. Google Ads has some pretty slick tools that use machine learning to sniff out weird click activity, but Bing Ads’ fraud detection isn’t quite as advanced, but most of the invalid clicks are not being filtered by both search engines.
Google Ads and Bing Ads are both trying to stop click fraud in their tracks with Traffic Quality Center. They use tactics like banning suspicious IP addresses and devices. Google Ads is ahead of the game though, with fancier methods like keeping an eye out for odd clicking behavior and making certain actions require two-factor authentication. Bing Ads might not be as well-equipped since they’re smaller and have fewer resources. This puts them at a higher risk of getting scammed.
Google Ads provides refunds for fraudulent clicks, while Bing Ads has a more limited refund policy, only issuing refunds for “material breaches” of Click Quality guidelines. However, Bing Ads lacks an automated IP blocking system for suspected click fraud, requiring advertisers to manually block suspicious IP addresses. This process is time-consuming and less effective than Google’s automated system, but as mentioned, most of the click fraud activities are not being detected by Google or Microsoft and the advertisers need to pay for it.
Clixtell offers a click fraud monitoring and protection tool for businesses using both Google Ads and Bing Ads. It uses advanced algorithms to detect various types of click fraud in real time, including bot clicks, manual clicks, and click farms. Clixtell’s algorithms constantly evolve, ensuring businesses have the most effective protection against click fraud.
Clixtell provides businesses a click guard with the ability to automatically and immediately block any type of suspicious IP address and devices with a custom security profile, in addition to real-time monitoring and detection. This feature saves businesses time and effort, as they don’t have to manually add suspicious IP addresses to exclusion lists.
Another benefit of Clixtell is its detailed reporting and analytics, which enables businesses to track their ad campaigns’ performance and identify any unusual patterns or activity. This allows businesses to make informed decisions and adjust their ad strategies accordingly.
By using Clixtell’s advanced algorithms and real-time monitoring, businesses can rest easy knowing that their PPC advertising campaigns are protected against click fraud. While both Google Ads and Bing Ads are vulnerable to click fraud, Google Ads may be better equipped to detect and prevent it due to its larger scale and advanced tools. Businesses should take measures to monitor their ad campaigns and prevent fraudulent activity, and consider various factors when choosing a platform for their PPC advertising campaigns.
