Ad Fraud

click spamming

What Happens When You Eliminate Click Spamming – Know from KUKU FM’s real case

Ever celebrated a spike in installs, only to realize no one’s using your app?  You’re not alone. For every marketer chasing performance metrics, there’s a nagging truth: not all installs are created equal. In fact, a growing chunk of them might be fake, incentivized, or just plain useless.  According to our analysis, there has been a significant rise in ad fraud in apps at each level of the funnel, the highest being at the install stage. There are various sophisticated methods used by fraudsters to manipulate app installs. This includes junk installs, click spamming, and affiliate fraud—all quietly inflating your numbers while your actual ROI flatlines.   Kuku FM, one of India’s fastest-growing audio platforms, ran headfirst into this challenge. Massive install numbers. Minimal post-install activity. Skyrocketing costs with little to show for it.   But they didn’t just accept it. They fought back with the right partner and the right data.  This is the story of how Kuku FM turned fake installs into real engagement, leveraging a mobile ad fraud detection tool with their current tech stack, and reclaimed their growth narrative.  The Growth Ambition vs. Ground Reality  Kuku FM had one goal: grow fast and grow big. With a rich library of audiobooks, podcasts, and audio courses, the stage was set. So the marketing team did what any growth-hungry team would do—they fired up the ad engines and watched the installs roll in. And roll in they did. Like, a lot.  At first, it felt like a win. The charts were climbing. Campaigns looked like they were crushing it. High fives all around.  But then… nothing. Users weren’t sticking. They weren’t signing up, subscribing, or even poking around the app. It was like throwing a party and no one showed up—except a bunch of bots and bounty hunters chasing rewards.  Digging deeper, the red flags started waving. Installs were pouring in from shady APK sources. Click counts were exploding, but actual engagement? Flatlined. And a whole chunk of traffic came from “incent walls”—users downloading the app just to score a freebie, not because they cared about the content.  The result? Ballooning marketing spend. Bloated attribution costs. A whole lot of noise, and very little signal. Kuku FM wasn’t just dealing with underperforming campaigns—they were up against full-blown mobile ad fraud.  Something had to change. Fast.  Diagnosing the Problem: A Closer Look at Fraud  – Looks good on paper Kuku FM’s dashboards were lighting up. Installs were rolling in. The growth team was hitting every acquisition target they’d set. From the outside, it looked like a textbook campaign.  – But behind the curtain… not so pretty Users weren’t engaging. No logins. No streams. No subscriptions. The installs were there, but the people behind them? Not so much. That’s when the team started poking around. – Junk installs These were coming from APK sources. Basically, a high volume of junk installs that looked like real users but never did anything after download. No events, no engagement, no heartbeat. These installs were likely faked just to meet click-to-install ratios and pass fraud checks. But they added zero value—like tossing empty jars on a shelf and calling it inventory.  – Click spamming This one was sneakier. Certain affiliate partners were generating a tidal wave of clicks. Not real clicks from interested users—just inflated numbers meant to hijack install credit. So instead of rewarding the actual source, the fraudster pocketed the payout. Kuku FM ended up paying for “traffic” that was never intended to stick around.  – Incentivize traffic The downloads were real, but the motivation? All wrong. These users came from “incent walls,” meaning they downloaded the app just to earn a reward. A coupon. A gift card. Maybe digital gold coins for some random mobile game. The second they got what they wanted, they bailed. No loyalty. No interest. No lifetime value. – Reality check All three fraud types had one thing in common: they were quietly wrecking ROI. Marketing budgets were being chewed up by users who were never going to become listeners, let alone subscribers.  Translation: It was time to clean house.  Turning Point: How mFilterIt Helped  – Junk installs? Kicked to the curb With mFilterIt’s advanced fraud detection in place, APK-based installs that showed zero post-install activity were flagged and filtered out. These weren’t just “low quality”—they were dead weight. Cutting them meant less noise, more signals.  – Incent walls got walled off mFilterIt tracked incentivized traffic sources and flagged partners pushing reward-based installs. Result? A drop in low-intent users. Campaigns shifted toward audiences that cared about the content, not just the freebies.  – Click spammers exposed Ad sources running click spamming tactics—flooding the system with fake taps to win attribution—were identified and removed. This wasn’t just affiliate fraud detection in action. It was money in the bank.  – Attribution costs trimmed By eliminating fraudulent publishers, Kuku FM cut down on attribution fees charged by their MMP. Less fraud meant fewer fake payouts—and a lot more budget to spend on genuine growth.  – Better partners. Smarter spending With the bad actors gone, Kuku FM gained visibility into which networks were performing. Budget reallocation became easier and smarter. Every rupee started pulling its weight.  The Results: Impact Beyond Numbers  – ₹26 lakh saved. No kidding That’s how much Kuku FM recovered once they kicked fake installs, click-happy affiliates, and reward-chasing freeloaders out of the picture. All that money? Back in the growth team’s pocket. Actual growth, not ghost traffic.  – MMP fees got a reality check Before mFilterIt, attribution was chaos. After? Streamlined. Fraudulent publishers were axed. Only legit installs cut. And with cleaner data came lighter MMP invoices.  – Partners, unmasked With shady traffic sources gone, the marketing team finally saw who was really delivering and who was just soaking up spend. Spoiler: Some networks looked a lot less shiny after the cleanup.  – People who used the app What a concept. Post-fraud, the installs didn’t just go up—they started meaning something. Users played content. Subscribed. Came back. The

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Apps Running on Incent Walls: A Hidden Risk for Advertisers

Imagine that you onboard affiliates to market your newly launched app. They commit performance, and you start seeing thousands of new installs overnight. You’re at peace that you’re getting a good return out of your marketing investments.   But within a few days, the users start uninstalling your app, engagement drops to near zero and you’re at the same spot where you were on Day 1. Are you thinking what went wrong?   The answer could lie in Incent walls.   A deceptive method used by affiliates to deceive advertisers into thinking their app campaigns are performing. Here users install apps only to earn rewards, not because they genuinely care about the app itself. While this tactic might appear to boost performance metrics, it creates a dangerous illusion of success, leaving advertisers with inflated numbers but little real value.  In this blog, we’ll uncover the risks of incent fraud, how fraudsters manipulate soft KPIs using incentivized traffic, and, most importantly, how advertisers can protect themselves from wasted budgets and misleading campaign results.  What Are Incent Walls? Incent walls are digital platforms that reward users with in-game currency, discounts, or other perks in exchange for installing apps or completing designated tasks. These platforms are commonly found in gaming, survey, and reward-based applications.  At first glance, incentivized traffic might seem like an easy way to boost app installs. However, for advertisers aiming to acquire high-quality users who engage with their app, this method poses several serious risks.  The Risks of Incent Traffic for Advertisers 1. Low-Quality Users: The Engagement Mirage Users who install apps through incent walls are not genuinely interested in the app’s purpose. Their primary goal is to claim a reward, which means they rarely interact meaningfully with the app. This results in:  Poor user retention – Users abandon the app after meeting the required conditions. Artificially inflated metrics – Install numbers rise, but true engagement remains low. Skewed data – Advertisers may misinterpret the success of a campaign, thinking they are reaching a relevant audience when they are not. 2. High Uninstall Rates: A Costly Cycle Since incentivized users have no real interest in the app, they often uninstall it as soon as they receive their reward. This leads to:  Increased churn rates – Making it harder to build a stable user base. Wasted ad spend – Marketers pay for installs that offer no long-term value. Negative app store rankings – High uninstall rates can lower an app’s ranking in stores, affecting organic discoverability. 3. Fraudsters Manipulating Soft KPI Events Incent traffic often gets blended with organic or paid traffic to manipulate key performance indicators (KPIs). Fraudsters use this technique to:  Create a false sense of campaign success – Users complete basic actions like sign-ups or tutorial completions but never become engaged customers. Drain advertising budgets – Advertisers spend on user acquisition without any long-term return. Make detection harder – By mixing incent traffic with legitimate sources, it becomes challenging to separate real user behavior from artificially boosted metrics. How to Detect Apps Running on Incent Walls Warning Signs of Incent Traffic: Unusual Traffic Spikes – If installs surge from specific sources within a short time frame, it could indicate incentivized installs. Low Engagement Rates – Users acquired through incent walls often fail to complete meaningful in-app actions beyond the reward requirement. High Uninstall Rates – A sudden drop-off in user retention post-installation is a strong red flag. Suspicious Sources – If the traffic originates from reward-based apps, it is essential to scrutinize it further. Real-World Case Studies: Spotting Incent-Driven Fraud Sample 1: Telecom Provider’s Inflated Installs A popular telecom provider ran a campaign unknowingly on an incent app. Users were directed to install the app through a shared link and complete certain steps to earn over 3,000 coins. While installs skyrocketed, actual customer engagement remained minimal.  Sample 2: Banking App’s Misleading Growth A campaign for a top-tier banking app was identified on an incent platform. Users followed a shared link, installed the app, and completed a simple action to claim rewards. The result? A surge in installs but little to no account activations or transactions.  These cases highlight how incentivized traffic can inflate metrics while delivering no real business impact.  How Advertisers Can Protect Themselves 1. Implement Advanced Fraud Detection Tools Advertisers can combat incent-driven fraud by leveraging ad fraud detection solutions like mFilterIt, which provides:  Real-time monitoring – Identifies traffic anomalies that signal fraudulent activity. User engagement analysis – Distinguishes between genuine and incent-driven users. Source validation – Ensures traffic quality by filtering out incent-originated installs. 2. Focus on Quality Over Quantity Instead of chasing high install numbers, advertisers should prioritize user intent and engagement. Strategies include:  Running targeted ad campaigns that attract relevant users. Optimizing app store listings to improve organic discovery. Monitoring post-install behavior to measure genuine engagement. Final Thoughts: Protecting Your Ad Budget While incent walls may appear to offer a quick boost in installs, they ultimately lead to poor-quality traffic, budget wastage, and skewed campaign analytics. By proactively identifying and blocking incent-driven installs with fraud detection tools, advertisers can ensure their marketing efforts drive real business value.  Investing in genuine, high-intent users will always yield better long-term success than chasing artificial growth through incent traffic. Brands that prioritize transparency and authenticity in their marketing will build stronger customer relationships and maximize their return on investment.  Ready to stop wasting budget on empty installs and start acquiring real, high-quality users?Connect with mFilterIt today to safeguard your app campaigns from incent-driven fraud and maximize true performance.

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IPL 2025 Ads: Smart Brand Tips for Monitoring, Frequency & Fraud

The Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to shatter records, not just on the field but also in the advertising arena. The 2025 season has witnessed a remarkable 29% increase in the number of advertisers compared to the previous year, with over 55 brands vying for attention during the first five matches alone.  However, with this vast opportunity comes significant risk. The surge in advertising can lead to overspending, ad fatigue among viewers, and an uptick in fraudulent activities targeting high-profile events like the IPL.   This blog explores how strategic implementation of ad monitoring, frequency capping, and fraud detection can be the difference between a successful IPL campaign and a costly misstep.   What will your brand get out of IPL advertising?   Here are the benefits your brand will get out of IPL advertising:  Fast Massive Reach   The Indian Premier League (IPL) isn’t just a cricket tournament—it’s a nationwide spectacle with a global fanbase. In the 2024 season, the IPL reached a cumulative audience of 546 million viewers on television alone, with digital platforms like JioCinema attracting an additional 620 million viewers.  This unparalleled reach offers brands instant national visibility.   For brands, this means instant national visibility. Doesn’t matter if you’re launching a new product or driving top-of-funnel awareness, IPL advertising is your opening batsman—aggressive, high-impact, and out to make a statement from ball one.   In most media environments, building this kind of reach would take weeks, even months. With IPL, it can happen in a matter of days, sometimes even overnight. You’re not just reaching people—you’re entering living rooms, conversations, and social media feeds in real time.   Hyper-Engaged Audience  IPL viewers are not just numerous; they are deeply engaged. During the 2024 season, JioCinema reported that viewers spent an average of 75 minutes per session, up from over 60 minutes in the previous season.  This substantial time spent indicates a highly captivated audience, providing brands with extended exposure and increased opportunities for message retention.   A neuroscience study revealed that during IPL 2024, viewers exhibited 1.2 times higher attention to ads on connected TVs compared to linear TV, and brand equity increased by 1.5 times on connected TVs.  This heightened engagement translates to more effective advertising, as audiences are more receptive and responsive to brand messages during the tournament.   Better Brand Recall  Repeated exposure during the IPL significantly enhances brand recall. The tournament’s high-frequency matches and extensive viewership provide multiple touchpoints for audiences to internalize brand messages.   Integrating advertisements with specific in-game moments, such as boundaries or wickets, further amplifies recall. For instance, Cadbury Dairy Milk’s #ThankYouFirstCoach campaign during IPL 2024, which featured heartfelt tributes to cricketers’ first coaches, resonated deeply with audiences and reinforced brand association.  By now you’ve understood the massive opportunity IPL advertising is. But over the years, there’s been a marked increase in programmatic ad buys and real-time bidding (RTB). Platforms like JioCinema have enabled precise audience targeting, allowing brands to bid dynamically for premium ad slots in real time. While this opens up opportunities for better efficiency and control, it also intensifies competition.   With thousands of brands vying for the same inventory, standing out without overspending becomes a strategic challenge. The very speed and scale of programmatic — if not managed carefully — can lead to frequency spikes, wasted impressions, or audience fatigue. For smart advertisers, this creates an opportunity: those who can balance agility with optimization can win both attention and efficiency.  Ad Monitoring  With millions of impressions served in real time across multiple platforms, devices, and geographies, this is not the kind of campaign you can set and forget. Without active monitoring, you risk losing both visibility and impact.  Performance dips, under-delivery, missed geographies, or even incorrect creatives can all quietly eat into your campaign effectiveness. These aren’t just technical glitches — they’re lost opportunities in a media moment that’s all about timing and precision.  This is where our Ad Detection & Analysis on OTT solution comes in. Built for high-velocity environments like IPL, it enables brands to monitor every single impression with precision — across CTV, mobile, and OTT platforms.  The ad monitoring solution provides comprehensive ad tracking, detecting when, where, and how your ads appear. Whether it’s during a top-billed match or a weekday double-header, you get complete visibility into ad delivery across regions, languages, and content types.  It also offers Peak Viewership Heatmaps, helping brands align their ad placements with moments of maximum audience engagement — ensuring not just delivery, but visibility when it matters most.  Performance is benchmarked category-wise, allowing you to understand how your brand stacks up against others in your industry. Plus, with regional and language-based analysis, you’ll know exactly how your ads performed in key cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and across language feeds including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.  In short, this isn’t just monitoring — it’s effective campaign intelligence, tailor-made for IPL-scale advertising.  Frequency Capping  With matches happening nearly every day and audiences tuning in across screens, the risk of overexposing your audience to the same ad grows rapidly. Too many impressions in a short span can lead to ad fatigue, reduced attention, and even negative brand perception.  This is where our Frequency Capping Management solution steps in. Built with IPL-scale dynamics in mind, it provides real-time control over how many times an ad is shown — per user, per device, per region, and even per campaign.  The platform checks every ad request against the cap limit before serving. If a device has already reached the cap, the ad is withheld — ensuring no overserving occurs. This allows for real-time protection against over-frequency, reducing media wastage and boosting campaign efficiency.  Brands can configure caps using multiple parameters:  Publisher-based: Set distinct limits per publisher or apply a uniform cap across all.  Geolocation-based: Adjust capping for different cities or regions.  Campaign-based: Apply caps tailored to specific initiatives or objectives.  Time-based: Control exposure over days, weeks, or months.  The system integrates seamlessly with ad servers and wraps creatives with a smart VAST tag that enforces these rules automatically

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pay-per-call

The Hidden Cost of Lead Generation Fraud in Pay-Per-Call Campaigns & How to Stop It

If you are selling products or services online in the US, there’s a good chance that you have dabbled with performance marketing or pay-per-call (PPC) campaigns, as they are commonly called. In fact, these days, in order to drive any kind of business online at scale, PPC campaigns have emerged as a necessity, and for good reason. In a perfect world, PPC campaigns have the potential to provide businesses with high-intent leads that can easily be converted into paying customers. Many brands have deployed significantly large teams of sales experts to handle the leads generated by PPC campaigns and drive conversions. Unfortunately, the world isn’t perfect, and modern PPC campaigns are plagued with lead generation fraud. Fraudsters use a variety of simple and sophisticated techniques to defraud advertisers and waste their ad spending while making a quick buck in the process. The worst part is that the wasted ad spend has just a short-term impact on such fraudulent activities. In the longer run, scammers can skew the metrics that advertisers use to plan their campaigns. As a result, lead generation fraud can have lasting effects on any brand’s PPC performance. Let us look at this problem in more detail. The Problem: How Lead Generation Fraud is Hurting Pay-Per-Call Campaigns Lead generation fraud is a huge problem, especially for advertisers operating at a large scale. This problem can be made easy to understand by breaking it down into its components: 1. Fake and Invalid Leads The most noticeable impact of fake campaigns is the fake lead generation with the use of bots and duplicates. Fraud publishers employ bots and in some cases, real people to click on ads and generate calls. However, since these calls are generated with the sole purpose of defrauding the advertisers and securing unethical monetary gains for the fraudsters, they have no real intent behind them and never convert into paying customers. The only losing party in this mix is the advertiser who ends up paying for calls that have no chance of converting, no matter how well a sales team works on them. 2. High Volume Of Fake Engagements Fake and invalid leads generated with the use of bots of poorly paid employees of fraud publishers generate a lot of engagement but drive no real value. In fact, they drain ad budgets that could otherwise drive engagements that boost the business’ bottom line. Similarly, the fake calls generated also engage call center resources that could be otherwise used to engage with genuinely interested prospects. This reduces the operational efficiency of the call centers. 3. Lack Of Pre-Call Filtering Mechanisms Most businesses don’t have a mechanism for lead validation designed for filtering out bad and fake leads before their call gets connected to their call center. This results in increased cost-per-acquisition (CPC) for the advertiser. Impact of Lead Generation Fraud on Brands The impact of lead generation fraud on a brand’s campaigns may not always be obvious. However, knowing where to look can work to the advantage of advertisers trying to make the most out of their PPC efforts: 1. Revenue Drain If a brand has fallen victim to lead generation fraud, it means that they are spending a portion of their ad spend on fake leads. Depending on the severity of the problem, this wasted budget can make up a significant portion of the advertiser’s total ad budget. 2. Call Center Inefficiencies Fake leads, after an advertiser has unwittingly paid for them, land as calls to their sales team. As a part of their responsibilities, sales teams have to take these calls and spend valuable time attending to them. Since they never even have a chance of resulting in a sale, the entire ordeal ends up wasting the time of valuable sales resources. 3. Brand Safety and Compliance Risks If a brand is struggling with lead generation fraud, it usually means that its ads are being published by fraudulent publishers. The brand is also usually never aware of the kind of content hosted by such fraudulent websites. As a result of association with such publishers, the brand risks damaging their reputation and in extreme cases, failing compliance checks. 4. Distorted Marking Analytics Finally, such instances of fraud have the potential to skew the very advertising metrics that advertisers use to inform their campaign strategies. If, for instance, an advertiser notices that ads with a particular set of publishers are generating good engagement, they may be inclined to direct more of their budget towards these publishers. However, if the publisher is not generating genuine leads, it leads to the advertiser wasting more of their budget with them. Besides the cost of the wasted ad budget, the brand also ends up paying the opportunity cost of not directing their budget towards genuine publishers that could have enabled them to access genuinely interested prospects. Real Case This problem is exemplified by the case study of one of our clients operating in the banking sector. Our client was struggling with poor lead quality, with some campaigns registering as many as 98% of generated leads as fake. Besides the fake leads being sent their way from bad affiliates, the other challenge our client was facing was to improve the efficiency of their quickly growing call center, something that was being plagued by the menace of fake leads. Let’s look at how we helped our client overcome these issues with our tool’s state-of-the-art validation features. How mFilterIt Solves the Problem Leveraging its advanced AI-enabled technology, mFilterIt helps advertisers gain transparency in their lead funnel. Here are a few ways it solves the lead gen fraud issue for advertisers: 1. AI-Powered Click-To-Call Validation Mechanism Our AI-powered validation mechanism is designed to detect bot-driven call interaction. This is made possible with behavioral and network analysis to identify patterns and detect bot activity. Leveraging this feature, the mFilterIt tool is able to execute reliable lead validation before the call is ever initiated. This, in turn, improves call center efficiency by eliminating fake call connections.

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Are your ads on OTT causing Ad Fatigue? Know the Impact of Frequency Capping Breach

Digital advertising has undergone a massive transformation. As audiences shift from traditional TV to streaming platforms, brands have gained unprecedented opportunities to engage with consumers in a more targeted and cost-effective way.  Enter Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and JioHotstar—which have changed the advertising game. These platforms allow brands to serve personalized, data-driven ads to the right audience at the right time.  But there’s a catch. What happens when an ad is shown too many times? Instead of boosting brand recall, excessive exposure leads to annoyance, ad fatigue, and a frustrated audience that starts tuning out the message altogether. This challenge is known as frequency cap breaching—a problem advertisers must solve to maintain engagement without overloading users.  Let’s explore what frequency capping is, why it matters, and how mFilterIt is helping brands optimize their OTT ad strategies.  What is Frequency Cap Breaching? Frequency breaching occurs when an ad is shown to the same user excessively, far beyond the optimal number of exposures. While repetition plays a crucial role in brand recall, too much of it leads to ad fatigue, causing frustration and making users disengage.  Effective frequency capping ensures that users aren’t served the same ad too many times within a short period. This enhances ad effectiveness, prevents irritation, and maintains a positive viewing experience. However, finding the right balance requires data-driven decision-making, continuous testing, and collaboration with advertising platforms. Why Does Frequency Capping Matter? Imagine watching your favorite show on Hotstar or Zee5, and suddenly, the same ad plays multiple times within a single episode. Annoying, right? This is where frequency capping comes in.  By limiting ad repetition, frequency capping ensures:  Better user experience by reducing ad fatigue  Higher engagement rates as viewers remain receptive to brand messages  Optimized ad spend by ensuring the right exposure levels  That’s where mFilterIt plays a crucial role—acting as the behind-the-scenes expert that ensures ads are displayed optimally without overwhelming the audience.  mFilterIt’s Role in Frequency Capping  As OTT advertising continues to evolve, mFilterIt leverages advanced technology to ensure optimal ad exposure. Here’s how it helps: 1. Device ID Analysis mFilterIt analyzes device IDs from OTT platforms to monitor ad repetitions. This allows advertisers to identify and address frequency cap breaches effectively. 2. Personalized Ad Experience By refining targeting strategies based on real-time data, advertisers can serve relevant ads to the right users at the right time, creating a more engaging experience. 3. Optimized Ad Strategy The insights provided help advertisers fine-tune their campaign strategies, preventing excessive ad exposure while maximizing engagement. 4. Transparent Reporting Findings are shared with publishers, enabling them to take necessary actions, such as blocking certain device IDs that breach frequency caps. This ensures a healthier and more balanced ad ecosystem.  The graph shows how frequently a specific device ID repeats at various times. Each point on the graph corresponds to a specific time, and the numerical value associated with the point indicates the exact count of repetitions of the device ID at that time. For instance, if the numerical value is higher at 00:54, it signifies that the device ID repeated more times during that specific time period. In essence, the graph visually represents the specific counts of repetitions for the device ID across different time points.  Way Forward For advertisers, the goal isn’t just visibility—it’s also about reaching the right audience and genuine engagement. Overexposing users to ads does more harm than good.  With mFilterIt’s cutting-edge ad fraud solution, brands and publishers can ensure a smoother, more effective ad experience.  Want to optimize your OTT advertising strategy and prevent ad fatigue? Get in touch with mFilterIt today! 

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how to detect and prevent ppc fraud in app campaigns

What Advertisers Need to Know When Addressing PPC Ad Fraud?

If you’re running a PPC campaign, check your analytics data.   Do you see a rapid curve of increase in click traffic, while your installs or events remain low?   This is one of the classic signs that you need to get your ad traffic vetted, as it might be under the radar of ad fraud perpetrators.   Over time fraudulent parties in the digital ecosystem have evolved and indulged in sophisticated fraud techniques to gain maximum benefit. The techniques have become more human-like and difficult to detect.   As a result, these fraudulent techniques not only impact the bottom line of a digital brand but also weaken the efficiency of the campaigns. From driving bot traffic to breaching the walled gardens, they have perfected their practices over time. One of them has been PPC fraud techniques which are not just limited to web but also app campaigns.   As the spending on mobile app marketing increases, it has become a gold mine for fraudsters to dig for money Types of in-app PPC Advertising Fraud Unlike web campaigns, app-based PPC fraud operates in an opaque environment. Fraudsters manipulate in-app interactions at various levels, but the most alarming issue is that advertisers often rely on flawed measurement systems that don’t validate traffic effectively. This is where many advertisers fall into the trap of trusting impressions and clicks at face value.  The fraud manifests in multiple ways: -Click Spamming: Fraudsters flood attribution systems with click spamming which is to generate fake clicks to wrongfully claim credit for organic installs.  -Click Injection: Malware-infected apps hijack install events by sending a fraudulent click at the exact moment an app is installed.  -Bot Traffic: Automated scripts mimic human behavior, generating clicks and even fake in-app events.  -Organic Poaching: Fraudsters hijack organic user traffic by injecting random clicks and falsely claiming attribution.  -Acquisition Poaching: Fraudsters manipulate attribution models by faking user engagement to appear as legitimate traffic.  The Importance of Click-Level Validation The biggest flaw in many app advertising strategies is that they trust data provided by Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) without validating it beyond the impression level. MMPs typically attribute installs and in-app events based on the last-click attribution model, but they don’t analyze whether that click was genuine in the first place.  Without click-level validation, advertisers are left vulnerable to: -Wasted budgets: Paying for fraudulent clicks that never convert into real users.  -Distorted performance metrics: Misattributed installs and engagement rates create misleading reports.  -Poor down-the-funnel optimization: Advertisers end up optimizing for fraudulent traffic rather than genuine user acquisition.  How PPC Fraud Impacts Down-the-Funnel Metrics Fraudulent clicks don’t just impact the initial stages of a campaign; they create a ripple effect down the funnel. Consider this:  If your PPC campaign generates fake clicks, your CPI (Cost Per Install) skyrockets because installs may not be genuine.  Fraudulent installs inflate your DAU (Daily Active Users) numbers artificially, leading to poor LTV (Lifetime Value) calculations.  Since bots or hijacked installs don’t engage meaningfully, your retention and conversion rates drop, creating misleading insights for future optimizations.  Real Case Study: How a Quick Commerce Brand Tackled PPC Fraud A major quick commerce platform in India discovered severe PPC fraud issues within their app advertising campaigns. They were running retargeting campaigns to increase engagement, but conversions remained low despite their significant ad spend. Upon investigation, they found:  -High levels of fraudulent traffic: 58% of clicks and 46% of events were fraudulent.  -Organic Poaching: Fraudsters injected random clicks to claim credit for organic installs. The click-to-conversion time gap for Publisher A on January 11th was 35% longer than usual, indicating hijacked organic traffic.  -Acquisition Poaching: Engagement partners falsely re-attributed already acquired users by forcing fake re-engagement clicks instead of waiting for real user activity.  By implementing click-level validation and actively monitoring traffic sources, the brand:  Identified and eliminated fraudulent publishers.  Reduced misattribution of organic traffic.  Saved $1.9 million in a single month by stopping invalid ad spend.  This case highlights how unchecked PPC Ad fraud can drain budgets while inflating performance metrics, making it crucial for advertisers to validate traffic beyond surface-level analytics.  Combatting PPC Fraud: Steps Advertisers Must Take Tackling PPC fraud in-app campaigns requires a proactive approach. Here are the most effective strategies:  Validate Click Traffic in Real Time   Use solutions that verify click authenticity before attribution.   Look for abnormal patterns like excessive click-to-install times or multiple clicks from the same device. Go Beyond Last-Click Attribution Model Validation  A last-click model alone doesn’t provide the full picture.  Compare click timestamps and engagement across different sources to detect anomalies.  Monitor Post-Install Behavior  Genuine users interact with an app differently than bots or fraudulent installs.  Analyze session depth, retention rates, and in-app purchases to flag anomalies.  Use Third-Party Fraud Detection Tools  Many MMPs lack comprehensive fraud prevention mechanisms.  Implement third-party ad verification tools to cross-check data integrity.  Blacklist Fraudulent Sources  Identify ad networks or publishers that repeatedly send suspicious traffic.  Blacklist them proactively to reduce the impact on down-the-funnel metrics  Way Forward PPC fraud in apps is a silent budget killer that can cripple your campaign performance if left unchecked. The key to protecting your ad spend is to go beyond surface-level analytics and validate clicks at a granular level.  If advertisers treat click validation like a security checkpoint—ensuring every click is a legitimate entry rather than an impersonator—campaign efficiency will soar, and wasted ad spending will be reduced.   Want to safeguard your app campaigns from fraud? Start by validating your ad traffic data, leveraging the advanced ad fraud solution that go beyond surface level check, and make every click count. Want to get a demo of how we do it? Contact our team today  

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ad fraud solution

Marketing Team vs. Call Center Team: Who’s to Blame When Leads Don’t Convert?

Picture this: The marketing team proudly delivers a new batch of leads, convinced that these prospects are primed for conversion. Meanwhile, the call center team rolls its eyes once again, they’re fielding complaints from uninterested or unqualified contacts. Frustration rises, fingers are pointed, and the age-old question resurfaces: Who’s responsible when leads don’t convert—marketing or the call center?  This debate often boils down to one critical issue: junk leads. While the marketing team may generate impressive volumes of leads, not all are created equal. Junk leads—those unqualified, uninterested, or even fraudulent frequently sneak into the funnel, wasting time, resources, and ultimately, opportunities for both teams. In this article, we explore the “real reason” behind this endless marketing vs. call center debate, emphasizing how a continuous filtering system can align both teams, save time, and improve results.  The Junk Lead Challenge: Why Leads Aren’t Always What They Seem  On the surface, a lead might appear promising. It might tick the right boxes in terms of basic demographics or initial engagement. However, a closer look reveals that not all leads are created equal. Junk leads are often generated through non-intent-driven clicks impertinent, low-quality traffic sources, or unverified information. These leads lack genuine interest and intent to buy, leading to a series of issues that drive the marketing and call center divide:  Marketing’s Perspective: “We Hit Our Numbers”  Marketing’s goal is often centered on generating high lead volumes. Performance is measured by metrics like click-through rates, form submissions, and lead counts, creating pressure to hit targets. However, these numbers can sometimes reflect quantity over quality, as invalid clicks and junk leads skew results.  Call Center’s Perspective: “We’re Wasting Our Time”  The call center team deals with these leads firsthand, engaging in time-consuming follow-ups only to find disinterested, unreachable, or unqualified contacts. For call center agents, these engagements lead to burnout and frustration, impacting their morale and effectiveness.  This disconnects between the two teams not only impacts productivity but also consumes valuable resources. For a business focused on conversion and growth, the junk lead issue becomes a costly barrier, resulting in wasted time, reduced efficiency, and strained internal relationships across departments.  The Hidden Impact of Junk Leads  Junk leads are more than just data in the CRM; they create a cycle of wasted efforts for both teams:  -Lost Time on Unproductive Calls: Call center agents spend precious time on leads that lack any genuine interest in the product, draining their morale and productivity. It’s frustrating for agents to encounter frequent rejections, impacting their motivation and performance.  -Strain on Marketing Resources: For marketing, the push for high numbers of leads can come at the expense of quality. Campaigns are evaluated on how many leads they generate, even if many are unlikely to convert. This can lead to a misplaced focus on quantity over quality, which ultimately fails both teams.  -Unmet Conversion Goals: For both marketing and the call center, junk leads directly affect the bottom line. Marketing sees low ROI on its campaigns, and the call center fails to hit conversion targets. In the end, this hurts the business by diverting resources from potential sales opportunities to unqualified leads.  Focus on Lead Quality Over Lead Quantity  To resolve the marketing-call center debate, it’s essential to shift the focus from sheer lead volume to lead quality. By implementing more rigorous lead qualification and filtering practices, companies can prevent junk leads from clogging the sales pipeline. Here’s how:  –Establish Clear Lead Qualification Criteria The first step in aligning both teams is to set clear standards for what defines a “qualified lead.” This could include factors like purchase intent, behavior on the site, engagement with marketing content, and demographic relevance. By standardizing these criteria, marketing can better identify high-potential leads before they’re sent to the call center, ensuring agents aren’t left cold-calling uninterested contacts.   -Leverage Behavioral Data for Better Lead Insights  With digital tools, marketing can capture and analyze data on each lead’s behavior—such as time spent on key pages, interaction with offers, and responses to email campaigns. Leads showing high levels of engagement signal a stronger interest and are more likely to convert. Sharing this behavioral data with the call center gives agents deeper context, helping them prioritize leads more effectively.  -Segment and Score Leads Before Hand-Off  Segmentation and lead scoring can transform a CRM from a dumping ground of all leads into a well-organized system that prioritizes quality over quantity. With segmentation, marketing can assign different levels of interest to leads, grouping them by their likelihood to convert based on factors like recent interactions, browsing patterns, and demographic fit. Lead scoring, on the other hand, uses these criteria to rate each lead’s conversion potential, making it clear which leads warrant follow-up.  –Optimize Follow-Up Process for Different Lead Types  Once leads have been segmented, the call center can adjust its follow-up process based on each group’s engagement level. For instance, leads with high engagement scores can be prioritized for immediate, frequent follow-ups, while lower-scoring leads might benefit from a more gradual approach or even additional nurturing from marketing before being passed to sales. This ensures that agents are spending their time where it’s most likely to yield results.  -Implement Continuous Feedback Loops  To maintain alignment, marketing and the call center need open lines of communication. A continuous feedback loop allows the call center to provide insights on lead quality back to marketing, helping refine future campaigns. Over time, this feedback can guide marketing’s strategies to target more qualified leads, improving the overall quality of leads entering the funnel.  How mFilterIt can help marketers remove junk leads?    mFilterIt’s  Ad fraud solution empowers advertisers by collecting and analyzing crucial data—such as website behavior, CRM inputs, and conversion metrics—through advanced AI & ML algorithms. The system’s proprietary rule engine scores lead based on user intent (high, moderate, or low), helping advertisers swiftly identify and filter out junk leads. This enables sales teams to focus on quality prospects, improving efficiency and conversion rates. With mFilterIt’s analytics-driven approach, advertisers gain actionable

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ad fraud solution

Debunking the Myth: Re-Engagement Campaigns Aren’t Always Fraud-Free, Know Why

Imagine launching a re-engagement campaign with the confidence that you’re targeting existing, familiar users—an audience that’s supposed to be fraud-proof. It seems logical, doesn’t it? After all, why would fraudsters bother with users who are already in your database?  Unfortunately, this assumption couldn’t be more misleading. Re-engagement campaigns are not only impacted by fraud but are also increasingly targeted by sophisticated fraudulent techniques. Fraudsters see these campaigns as low-hanging fruit, exploiting weak attribution systems and leveraging the widespread myth that re-engagement is safer than acquisition of new customers. Re-engagement campaigns are undeniably valuable. They help brands reconnect with dormant users, boost retention, and drive long-term growth. But failing to recognize the lurking threat of mobile ad fraud can turn these campaigns into a costly trap. In this article, we’ll uncover the hidden risks, types of digital ad fraud affecting re-engagement efforts, and how brands can protect themselves. It’s time to rethink what you know about re-engagement campaigns and ad fraud.  Common Misconceptions About Fraud in Re-Engagement Campaigns  Belief that targeting existing users reduces the likelihood of fraud: Marketers often assume that fraud is less of a threat in re-engagement campaigns because the target audience consists of users already familiar with the brand. Perception that fraudulent activities are more prevalent in acquisition campaigns: While acquisition campaigns are a common target for fraud, re-engagement campaigns are equally at risk due to their high-value budgets and relaxed monitoring.  Types of Fraud in Re-Engagement Campaigns  – Organic Poaching  Organic poaching occurs when fraudsters manipulate attribution systems to take credit for users who would have naturally re-engaged with the brand. These are genuine users who, due to their liking for the brand, were likely to return on their own. Fraudsters intercept their activity by inserting click be, before the user’s click making it look organic. This artificially inflates the campaign’s performance metrics, and the attribution platform marks this as an organic activity.   – Acquisition Poaching  In acquisition poaching, fraudulent reengagement partners take advantage of attribution windows to falsely categorize newly acquired users as re-engaged ones. For instance, they may manipulate data to claim credit for a user who has just downloaded an app or made a first purchase, even though the individual was not part of the re-engagement audience. This not only wastes the re-engagement campaign budget but also blurs the distinction between acquisition and re-engagement efforts, leaving marketers with misleading insights.  – Event Spoofing  Event spoofing involves fraudsters simulating user actions after a re-engagement campaign, such as fake logins, purchases, or app interactions. These fabricated events create the illusion that the campaign successfully drove meaningful engagement. However, these activities lack any real user intent or value, resulting in wasted ad spend and unreliable performance data. Event spoofing is particularly harmful because it often goes undetected until a deeper analysis reveals discrepancies between reported metrics and actual user behavior.  Impact of Fraud on Re-Engagement Campaigns  Financial Losses and Wasted Ad Spend: Re-engagement campaigns are designed to maximize ROI by targeting users who are already familiar with the brand. However, when fraudsters interfere, ad budgets are wasted on fake actions that provide no real value. For example, event spoofing may create the illusion of reactivated users completing high-value actions, such as purchases or logins, while in reality, no such engagement has occurred. This not only drains resources but also diverts funds from genuine opportunities to re-engage actual users. Misleading Campaign Performance Data: Fraudulent activities in re-engagement campaigns can significantly distort performance metrics. Organic poaching and acquisition poaching, for instance, lead to inflated figures, making campaigns appear more successful than they truly are. When marketers rely on these skewed insights, they risk misallocating budgets, overestimating campaign effectiveness, and losing the ability to optimize future strategies effectively. Inefficiency in Targeting Actual Users: Fraud doesn’t just waste money; it also undermines the core objective of re-engagement campaigns—reconnecting with dormant users. Fraudulent actions skew targeting systems, making it harder to identify and reach genuine inactive users who could bring long-term value to the brand. Instead, marketers end up chasing fake interactions, missing out on real opportunities to reignite meaningful customer relationships. Why You Need to Invest in an Ad Traffic Validation Solution: Real Cases   Case 1: Abnormal Click to App Open Rate   In normal case, most users get reattributed immediately after opening the app.  In the above case, about 60% of the clicks made by users on retargeting ads did not result in the app being opened immediately and it is done after 06th Hour, which clearly indicates large amount of click spamming to capture users opening the app organically.  Case 2: Repetitive Orders from Same GAID   Repetitive orders are getting placed from same GAID on the same time frame and same store also, all order is on Cash on Delivery. Refer below sample for the same, there are 212 such orders placed. This is a clear case of spoofed events.   Takeaway  Re-engagement campaigns are important for marketers to reengage their past users and be present in their minds. However, to increase the potential of these retargeting campaigns, marketers must also address the hidden risks of fraud to increase the potential of the campaign and reach maximum users. By implementing robust ad fraud solution like Valid8 by mFilterIt, monitoring campaign data meticulously, and staying informed about the emerging fraud patterns can help to safeguard the re-engagement efforts and ensure that your ads reach the right audience.   Want to get a demo of how we do it? Contact our team today  

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Click Tracker

How Click Trackers Are Protecting Millions in Ad Budgets from Fraud?

In the rapidly growing digital world, the need for proactive measures against invalid clicks is required for advertisers to ensure that every click gets measured and validated. Having Google-approved click trackers is a must if advertisers want to track campaigns. Click tracker assists in the detection of any fraudulent clicks from bots, click farms, or any other invalid source, which can further help optimize the campaign before it burns the budget and distorts campaign insight.  Why Click Trackers Are Essential Click trackers help advertisers in monitoring the performance of the ads accurately by tracking user behavior. This data involves conversions, click-through rates, time spent on the website and overall user journey. This helps the advertiser to measure the success of their advertisement and optimize it accordingly.    Since Google’s ad platform smoothly can be integrated with certified click tracker, advertisers can use these tracking methods without encountering compatibility or performance difficulties. So, by accurately tracking ad clicks and following actions, advertisers gain valuable insights into which keywords, ad formats, and targeting options drive conversions, ultimately leading to higher ROI and significance through data-driven decisions.   A Google-certified clicks tracker can assist advertisers in tracking clicks on their ads while remaining compliant with Google’s advertising standards. This contributes to Google policy compliance by preventing harmful or misleading tracking activities that may have an impact on user experience. This helps to limit the possibility of ad abuse and misreporting, which can cost advertisers money and skew performance metrics.  Addressing Click Fraud Advertisers could utilize click fraud detection tools to improve the transparency and efficacy of their ad campaigns, ensuring that their advertising budget is spent on genuine user engagements.  – Invalid Traffic Detection: Detection of fraudulent traffic in real time in Google Ads and Meta Ads plays a critical role in protecting advertiser ad budget getting wasted on invalid traffic. -Genuine vs. Bot Clicks: Genuine clicks often show unique patterns, high levels of engagement, and come from a variety of geolocations. In contrast, bot clicks frequently indicate quick, repeated patterns, limited involvement, and come from suspicious IP addresses. -Fake Clicks: Real traffic leads to higher conversion rates. Detecting and stopping fraudulent clicks from click spamming in real-time boosts traffic quality and conversions. -Click Farms: A large-scale click fraud campaign frequently produces invalid clicks. These types of activities, such as click farms, are frequently used to artificially increase ad click volumes, resulting in distorted and inflated metrics. How Click Trackers Benefit Brands and Ad Networks Advertisers should understand the need for having accurate and transparent click measures and validation tools which can protect their investment and ensure their marketing efforts reach genuine and targeted audiences.   The internet click campaign market has expanded from 6% to 16% in recent years, and it is expected that digital advertising spending will rise from $88 billion to $172 billion over the next five years. According to Statista, that figure will expand at a 14% annual rate.  – Real-Time Data Accuracy: Having a real-time data on user interaction helps in providing marketers with the latest insight into the campaign performance by analyzing the CTR, user behavior, and engagement metrics which provides precise evaluation of campaign effectiveness.   – Fraud Prevention: Detecting and eliminating invalid clicks, including those who bot or repeat actions by the same user, to mitigate click fraud. Additionally, verifying the origin of clicks to confirm as they align with targeted geographies  – Enhanced Campaign Optimization: Trackers can be used to monitor certain metrics that are relevant to your campaign’s objectives. Monitoring and validation are necessary throughout the funnel. By tracking which clicks lead to conversions, marketers may optimize their ROI.  The Role of Click Trackers in Ad Networks Click trackers are key for smooth operation and effective ad optimization. They play an important role in ensuring the integrity of campaigns while enhancing their effectiveness across various platforms.  So, by detecting these fraudulent activities bot traffic, and click spamming, click tracker help advertisers safeguard their ads from fraud, reducing ad budget loss and ensuring that the campaigns get genuine traffic.   Click Tracker makes sure the ads that are getting published are legitimate, brand-safe domains, maintaining the campaign’s credibility and also gaining user trust. They also support cross-platform performance measurement enhancing collaboration between the advertiser and the publisher This helps to strengthen the network, by protecting the ad spent, optimizing the campaign with the help of real-time tracking and improving revenue attribution, resulting in better outcomes for both the brand as well as the publisher.  Why mFilterIt Click Tracker Stands Out Click Tracker by mFilterIt, a Google-verified tool, is designed to provide full-funnel protection for brands and ad networks, ensuring transparency throughout the user journey from getting impressions to conversions. It provides effective  fraud detection by using advanced AI, ML, and heuristic analysis, and helps in delivering trustworthy clicks, safeguarding brand’s digital campaigns from invalid clicks and fraudulent activities.  The tool offers domain verification, bot filtering, and real-time tracking, ensuring the integrity of your ad campaigns while maintaining data accuracy. Marketers can gain actionable insights using click tracker tool for optimizing their strategies effectively, leading to better resource allocation and enhanced campaign performance.  By detecting and filtering invalid clicks across multiple platforms, the click tracker helps brands minimize waste of ad spend, delivering genuine engagement and genuine leads. Conclusion  By integrating Google-verified click trackers, advertisers not only meet industry requirements but also gain meaningful insights into user behaviour, allowing them to make data-driven decisions to improve campaigns and increase ROI.   As digital advertising grows at an exponential rate, the value of real-time data accuracy, fraud detection, and campaign optimization cannot be compromised. Employing a click tracker can help brands stand out because it provides strong protection against invalid clicks, guaranteeing that advertising investments get genuine engagement and results.    Ready to safeguard your ad campaigns and boost performance?Get in touch with us today to learn how our click tracker can help you detect fraud, optimize ROI, and make every click count.

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ads

Click Validation: Ensuring Quality Engagement with Your Ads

When running online ad campaigns, it’s not just about getting clicks—it’s about getting the right clicks. Many advertisers face the challenge of differentiating between genuine clicks and accidental or low-quality clicks. This is where mFilterIt’s click validation comes in. Click validation helps to ensure that the clicks on your ads are from real, engaged users who are genuinely interested in your product or service. How does click validation work, and why is it so important? Tracking   >>>  Analyzing  >>>  Improving -Tracking Click Behavior: The first step in click validating is tracking user interactions with your ads. Tools like pixels or tracking URLs allow you to monitor exactly what happens after someone clicks on your ad. Are they bouncing right away, or are they exploring your website further? If someone clicks on an ad and immediately leaves, it might suggest they were not genuinely interested. This kind of data is key to identifying poor-quality clicks. -Analyzing Engagement: Clicks don’t tell the whole story. By validating the quality of each click, you can assess how much time visitors spend on your site, what pages they visit, and if they complete any desired actions (like signing up or making a purchase). For example, if a user clicks on your ad but doesn’t interact with your site, it’s a sign they might not be a valuable lead. Click validation helps you focus on users who engage deeply with your platform and are more likely to convert. -Improving Ad Targeting: Click validation allows you to fine-tune your targeting strategy. By identifying which clicks are more likely to convert, basis geo, behaviour, scroll pattern, etc.., you can adjust your campaigns to reach users who show genuine intent. Over time, this leads to higher quality leads and a better return on investment (ROI). In conclusion, ad fraud solution isn’t just about tracking clicks—it’s about understanding the intent behind those clicks and optimizing your campaigns for better results. If a bot is just clicking your ads your campaign will never deliver conversions, since bots doesn’t buy or fulfil a successful lead. It’s the genuine user who counts, hence your campaign optimization should focus more on learning your user behaviour and adopting necessary findings to improvise campaign conversions. To start your click validation connect with mFilterIt.

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