Ad Campaign Click Fraud

Click Fraud

_{Who is clicking your Google Ad?}

Fraudulent clicks increase Google Ad costs and prevent ads from reaching potential customers. Learn how to monitor pay per clicks and increase profits by showing your ads to humans and not bots.

Why is a GCLID important and how is it used? 

A GCLID string of characters is the key to following the money trail for pay-per-clicks. A Google Click ID contains a recognizable prefix of "GCLID" and is followed by a unique 100 character alphanumeric string. These characters within a URL are associated with a Google Ads Campaign.

When a visitor clicks on a paid ad, their unique GCLID is bound to the end of the URL which is used to count and track visits to a paid search link. This allows you to see the effectiveness of your ads by tracking a Paid Click when running Google Ads. 

Remember: A GCLID in your logs is a way to follow the pay-per-click money trail.

Example:https://puresleep.com/?adsrc=SmartShopping&

GCLID=EAIaIQobChMI3vr7s4r_8wIViGxvBB2c3weYEAAYBCAAEgJagvE_AwE

GCLID Click fraud

This happens when an ad is clicked in order to drive up the cost of advertising for a competitor. These nefarious clicks are being tracked through GCLIDs; however, there are loopholes. 

What if a competitor spreads the task to click on an ad with their 50 employees? 

What if they ask 10 people to click from different devices?

What if they create a bot on a VPN that clears the cache and does this all day long?

This click Fraud Example shows the return visit from the same GCLID every few days.

Read what Google has written about invalid GCLID clicks that are not real visitors. - support.google.com