How to protect campaigns from invalid traffic

Where there is profit, there is fraud. And digital marketing is no exception. Moreover, it is often assumed that fraud is just a part that you have to accept when working in digital marketing. While this saying may be a stretch, the fact remains: you still need to know how to spot fraud and eliminate it.

No network can guarantee a fraud-free experience; that would simply be a lie. However, working with a reputable and trustworthy network gives you an ally, so you don’t have to fight your battles alone. Choose the network that puts traffic quality first and volume later; it should also update its system as often as possible, since no fraudster is waiting for a network to catch up.

At RollerAds, we pay lots of attention to traffic quality and see it as a continuous process that should always be monitored, not a one-time check. As Pierre Bertin, Chief Business Development Officer at RollerAds, puts it: “Traffic quality has always been one of our main priorities. We do not stop at basic technical filters. Our system continuously evaluates sources against real campaign goals and can automatically remove traffic that looks clean but does not deliver meaningful results.”

In other words, the right partner should not leave advertisers to deal with suspicious traffic on their own. It should keep improving its approach as fraud tactics evolve.

In our earlier article, we went over types of fraud, including the newest schemes out there and ways they mess up your campaigns. In this piece, we'll cover signs your campaigns are infected with invalid traffic and steps you can take to clean it up.

Culprits of invalid traffic

Let’s just say: The earlier you spot the flow of invalid traffic, the easier the fix is. Now you just need to know what to look for. With years of experience, we came up with a list of solid signs that, upon seeing them, you can almost certainly interpret as indicators of fraud. Let’s have a look:

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• Abnormal frequency and repeatability. When you see a wave of clicks in short periods, equal intervals between actions, and the same IP address, device, or user agent, chances are you’ve got a bot attack on your campaign.
• Conflicting GEO and campaign settings. If traffic comes from data centers, VPNs/proxies, or GEOs you didn't list in your campaign settings when you set it up, it’s a clear sign of fraud.
• Unusual technical parameters. User behavior is always your best benchmark. So when you see outdated or rare browsers, empty/referrer anomalies, the same screen resolutions, disabled JavaScript/cookies, suspicious user agents, compare it to the usual pattern and you’ll see that those are, once again, not real users.
• Poor quality across websites and subID. In cases where you see one zone, placement, or subID with significant differences in CTR, CPA, time on site, or post-click activity, you need to compare sources within the same attribution window to determine the presence of invalid traffic.
• Past desired action behavior. Once again, real users typically have similar behaviors. They go back and forth, viewing multiple pages, and completing certain actions after the first visit. While bots and click farm schemes strictly follow the “click → action → disappearance” pattern.
• Unrealistic conversions. If you see many registrations but few email confirmations, profile completions, repeated sessions, or payments, there’s a high chance that fraudsters are mimicking simple target actions.

While the signs mentioned above should give you a strong suspicion of invalid traffic involvement, there are also indirect clues that don’t necessarily scream “fraud” but still raise some red flags pending investigation. They may be linked to simple funnel issues rather than the traffic itself, but as the saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry. The indirect signs include:

• Suspiciously short visits. When users spend only a couple of seconds on the website, don’t scroll further, or leave the page without so much as clicking anywhere else, you might be dealing with invalid traffic. But you also might have fumbled the targeting settings long before the campaign went live.
• Clicks with zero completed target actions. If CTR is high but registrations, deposits, purchases, or other target actions are lower than usual, invalid traffic may be present. However, these cases could equally indicate broken tracking, wrong audience, or confusing landing page experience.

With all that being said, no matter which signs you see in your data, take them with a pinch of salt. Meaning that occasional blips, a.k.a. one or two signs from the list, here and there happen without a foul reason behind them. You are working with real humans after all. 

Instead, keep your finger on the pulse of rapid changes, worsening conditions, and, of course, all the signs being present at once.

Eliminate invalid traffic

Now, when you do suspect the presence of invalid traffic, here is what you should do:

1. Get in touch with your personal manager or support right away, whether you work with RollerAds or any other reputable, well-known advertising network.

In essence, this is it. But in order to help the network team remove the invalid traffic channel, you can:

2. Verify the domains yourself (whether they open and redirect, and whether the links work) and walk through the entire funnel from start to finish, just in case.

3. Give the LP CTR, clicklog (agent, IP, etc.), and tracker statistics.

You can eventually investigate and eliminate the invalid traffic source, even without your tracker data. But it will take longer, and time matters most. Besides, your tracker data might not only give networks insights into where to search for, but also serve as a future reference for you when dealing with fraud. 

That’s why we recommend implementing tracking in advance and hooking it to each and every campaign you’re running. Check out our step-by-step guide to learn how to set up a postback with the most popular trackers.

No reputable ad network will knowingly sell you invalid traffic. They care about your reputation and standing in the business field as much as their own. An experienced, trustworthy network always runs extensive checks and trials on every new traffic source before offering it to you.

But fraudsters don’t really wait for networks to find another way to detect their scheme and come up with more and more new ways of slipping through all the barriers. Hence, there will never be a 100% guarantee of zero invalid traffic, unless the network is lying for obvious reasons. So don’t go look for one with such promises; instead, look for those that constantly update their defense system and stay put with all the signs mentioned above. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Also, it is in the ad platform's best interest to take control of the situation if you do fall victim to fraud. So there's no reason to worry: if you have proof, you remain protected from monetary damages even in the worst-case situation. If fraudulent traffic gets through, ad networks often refund the money in full. In addition, we'll shut down the invalid traffic channel without the option to challenge the decision, so that you (and other advertisers) will be safer in the future.

Closing words

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: traffic quality will always be our priority at RollerAds. The platform's anti-fraud system immediately flags and blocks all invalid traffic sources, and our team frequently adds new metrics to identify fraudulent traffic sources faster.

Ad fraud remains an ongoing issue in the digital marketing industry, despite advertising networks' best efforts to prevent it. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. RollerAds is always here to listen and assist you.