Click fraud. A problem that annoys every marketer in Programmatic Advertising.

After I read Morgan’s article about click fraud, I wondered whether the tools that promise solutions for this issue are useful or not? So, as I began my research on this nuisance, the following advertisement began to taunt me on Facebook:

 

“Imagine your ugliest competitor here”. Hilarious, isn’t it? Brilliant and catchy, it forces you to just click on it. When I went to Click Cease‘s website, this sentence caught my attention: 

DID YOU KNOW THAT 20% OF YOUR AD CLICKS ARE FRAUD? 

This is too much! (I said to myself). Even if their ad seems funny, click fraud is no joke. This question got me thinking about the subject a bit more.

Let’s say I spend $1,000 on a Google Display Ads campaign. Does it mean that I waste $200 just because competitors and bots are continuously clicking on my ads? 

I think by now you realize that click fraud needs an immediate solution.

There are already many different types of software dedicated to solving this problem. But where can one find the most authentic solution? What are the differences between different tools? And do they truly deliver what they promise? 

AND, are they even worth using? 

I am going to answer all these and other similar questions in my following review series about click fraud protection tools. 

So, are you ready for our first study subject? Let me announce today’s competitor, the creators of that brilliant ad, Click Cease! Clap-clap :)  

The first thing worth mentioning about Click Cease is that it works for both Google AdWords and Microsoft Ads/Bing Ads campaigns. This software detects and immediately blocks the fraudsters from clicking your AdWords & Bing ads.

How does it work? Simple!

It starts with the monitoring process. The software will track the click activity on your search network, display ads, and shopping campaigns. It monitors your IP and IP range, unique device, VPN, your settings, and so on. After that, here comes the analyzing part, each click receives a score on dozens of parameters.

The click fraud algorithm decides which click is real and which one is fake. At the end of the process, each one of the clicks gets a harmless or fraudulent label. The system automatically puts the fraudulent IPs into your AdWords IP exclusion list. Now, the competitors and bots will not see your ads. The tool puts the fraudulent and dangerous IP addresses into quarantine. Great, just what we wanted! We got rid of the unsolicited sites and bots.

But here’s the thing. What if we exclude IPs that SEEM harmful and it turns out they might be our future customers? Hard question, but also understand that there isn’t always a solution for everything. At least, we won’t get those ads, right!

Well, go ahead and show me the pricing! 

Eventually, it promises a money saver way for advertising ;)

They have three subscription plans, basic, standard, and pro. The basic plan costs only $14/month. The standard is $50/month, while the pro plan is $75/month.

The free trials provide opportunities to test out the software before you decide to subscribe. For the basic plan, you can start with a two-week trial, for standard and pro plan with a one-week trial.

Here are the details of each plan,

A basic plan is an inexpensive option, but it doesn’t contain the blocking feature and only has the detection step of the process. It is the main difference between the standard and the basic subscription plan.
This tool seems to help avoid or at least reduce the click fraud of your Google AdWords campaigns. In my opinion, it’s worth trying  Click Cease since they offer free trials. 

Every campaign is different. Let us give Click Cease a chance and try to save some money!

If you have any story or experience with Click Cease that you’d like to share, we’d be happy to hear it, send us a message!