#clickfraud

Mobile app advertising is all about data coming from CPI campaigns – ROAS and LTV being the go-to metrics to measure campaign performance and success. But are you sure the metrics you are relying on are giving you the right results? 

The numbers on your dashboard are not always true.  

As advertisers pour more budget into mobile performance campaigns, many overlook critical vulnerabilities – mobile ad fraud. It’s not just a line-item loss, it’s a performance killer that inflates Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and erodes Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). 

Fraudsters exploit the systems marketers depend on – attribution models and campaign metrics – using sophisticated tactics like click fraud, fake installs, click injection, SDK spoofing, etc.  

You know you need an answer when your campaigns don’t perform as you expect them to. Or maybe they do perform, but just on dashboards? 

Click fraud is no longer limited to just basic bot traffic. In 2026, it has evolved into more sophisticated threats that many traditional detection tools are not equipped to identify. 

Fraudsters now deploy AI-powered bots that simulate real user behaviour to evade behavioural detection. They operate across performance marketing ecosystems, including Google Search, display, GDN, Pmax, Meta, affiliate networks, app install campaigns, lead generation, and re-engagement campaigns. 

Meta’s advertising ecosystem (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Facebook Audience Network) is where billions of marketing dollars flow every single year. The platform offers unmatched reach, precise targeting, and a direct line to almost every consumer demographic.

But here’s a number that should make every CMO pause. Meta reportedly projected 10% of 2024 sales came from scam and fraud ads. 

Welcome to the world of Pay Per Lead! A more trustworthy and monetized model. 

When impressions were being faked, clicks were being hijacked, and brands were receiving barely any conversions. Hence marketers, especially in tier-1 markets like the United States, decided to do what any rational person would do. They stopped paying for clicks and started paying for outcomes. Fill a form, generate a lead, get paid. Simple, accountable, fraud-proof. 

The moment payment moved to the lead event; some affiliates simply moved their operation there too. Suddenly, forms were being filled by scripts, credentials were being recycled, and conversion metrics were spiking in ways that looked extraordinary on a dashboard and meant absolutely nothing in a sales pipeline. 

A few years ago, a globally recognised brand cut two-thirds of its annual online advertising budget around $100 million. What happened next revealed a shocking truth about the digital advertising industry.  

There was little to no drop in performance. Conversions held steady, demand didn’t collapse, and the business continued as usual. The reason wasn’t efficiency; it was ad fraud and the brand that showed the mirror to the world was uber.

Fast forward to 2026, and the problem has only become more complex. 

If you are investing in paid media in 2026, it’s important to know that your PPC campaigns may already be exposed to highly sophisticated fraud tactics, many of them powered by advancements in AI. What once started as a side effect of digital advertising has now evolved into a deeply embedded part of the ecosystem marketers operate in today. 

Performance Programmatic Platforms follow the same rules as traditional programmatic platforms, but the focus on performance campaigns is to optimize ad placements through real-time bidding and enable data-driven decision-making.

These platforms buy and place ads for advertisers with targeting functionalities, dynamic creative optimization, and performance analysis. As they market themselves, the entire process is ML and algorithm-driven. However, there is a prevailing myth that these platforms are fraud-free. Even MMPs are failing to do anything to curb these frauds because they have no protection at the impression level and minimum protection at clicks.

While online fraud perhaps started with email spamming, it has come a long way. Today, ad fraud takes many forms, and it costs digital advertisers several billion dollars. According to Statista Reports, within the 5 years between 2023 & 2028, the costs due to digital advertising fraud will increase from $88 billion to $172 billion. The lure of making quick money has motivated modern fraudsters to employ sophisticated techniques to commit fraud.

Ad fraud techniques such as domain spoofing, cookie stuffing, ad stacking, ad injection, geo masking, and many others are just a few of the many techniques employed by modern fraudsters. Ad fraud is a serious problem that drains budgets and can cause long-term damage by skewing campaign performance data.