10 Best Click Fraud Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 24 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
There are seemingly countless click fraud software solutions available, so figuring out which is best for you is tough. You know you want to identify and block illegitimate traffic, ensuring that advertisers pay only for genuine user engagement—but now need to figure out which solution is the best fit. I've got you! In this post, I make things simple, leveraging my experience as a marketing expert, and using dozens of different click fraud detection tools to bring you this shortlist of the best click fraud software overall.
What Is Click Fraud Software
Click fraud software is a specialized tool designed to detect and prevent fraudulent clicks on online advertisements. The purpose is to analyze traffic and identify patterns that suggest non-genuine interactions, such as repeated clicks from the same source or unusual spikes in activity. The software then takes action to block these fraudulent activities, protecting advertisers' budgets and ensuring that their ad spend is directed towards real, potential customers.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Click Fraud Software
Here’s a detailed description of the best click fraud software that showcases each tool’s noteworthy features, pricing details, and pros and cons list. I’ve also included a screenshot illustrating a feature in action.
Previously known as PPC Protect, Lunio is a click fraud detection and prevention software designed to help businesses protect their online marketing campaigns, particularly pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. By identifying fraudulent, invalid, and unintended clicks, Lunio helps businesses understand the true performance of their channels, campaigns, and ads, allowing them to make informed decisions.
Why I picked PPC Protect: I picked PPC Protect because it helps with multi-platform protection by providing businesses with an automated solution that can integrate with other marketing apps and platforms, providing protection across multiple channels. Additionally, PPC Protect safeguards online marketing campaigns across various platforms, including Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and more.
PPC Protect Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include account alerts that notify businesses when it detects fraudulent activity on their online marketing campaigns. It also offers advertising management tools that allow businesses to manage their online marketing campaigns across multiple platforms.
Integrations include Shopify, Instagram, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Google Ads, TikTok, Marketo Engage, and Leadpages. You can also get additional integrations through API.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Generates instant click reports
- Supports 15+ platforms
- Provides API integration
Cons:
- No free trial is available
- Pricing details are not transparent
Best click fraud software for mobile ad fraud prevention and detection
Protect360 is a fraud protection solution offered by AppsFlyer.
Why I picked AppsFlyer: Protect360 of AppsFlyer is the best solution for mobile ad prevention and detection due to its comprehensive and always-on fraud detection and prevention suite. It protects against all common types of mobile ad fraud like install hijacking, click flooding, device farms, and bots. It utilizes AppsFlyer's scale, machine learning, and behavioral analysis to provide cover against known and new types of fraud.
AppsFlyer Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include post-attribution fraud detection. This feature identifies and blocks fraudulent installs after attribution through automatic pattern identification. Once attributed, an install cannot be erased, but Protect360's post-attribution fraud detection can retroactively deny fraudulent activity based on patterns found post-install.
Integrations are available with 10,000+ apps, including Meta for Business, Twitter, Google Ads, Adobe Campaign, Customer.io, Affise, Segment, RevenueCat, TrafficGuard, and Supermetrics. You can also get additional integrations through API.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Protects against all common types of mobile ad fraud
- Includes an API
- Large number of integrations
Cons:
- No integration with Zapier
- Pricing details are not transparent
ClickGuard is a software that provides click fraud protection and optimization for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. It helps businesses identify and eliminate malicious or useless traffic to ensure their advertising budget is used effectively.
Why I picked ClickGuard: The best aspect of ClickGaurd is that it protects your ppc ads from click fraud and invalid traffic. These may be accidental clicks or existing customers looking for further information.
ClickGaurd also provides detailed reports that provide key information about your campaigns, keyword performance, threat analysis, etc. You can also automate and share these reports with your team members or clients.
ClickGuard Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include automated optimization, time-on-site condition, GEO location protection, and proxy VPN detection. Also, ClickGaurd is a fully automated protection tool that enables businesses to run secure and effective pay-per-click campaigns without manual intervention. This means that businesses can continuously monitor and protect their PPC campaigns without manually reviewing and analyzing data.
Integrations are available with advertising software, CMS platforms, landing and lead capture software, website hosting, and e-commerce platforms. These software are Google Tag Manager, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Leadpages, LanderApp, ClickFunnels, Unbounce, Weebly, Squarespace, and more.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great for tracking Google Ads
- Provides real-time monitoring of your campaigns
- Helps analyze user behavior
Cons:
- The user interface is complicated
- Limited automations
Best click fraud software for small and medium-sized businesses
Improvely is a web-based tool that provides advanced analytics, conversion tracking, and click fraud monitoring for online marketers and advertisers. It helps businesses optimize their online advertising campaigns, track conversions, and detect fraudulent activities that may impact their ad performance.
Why I picked Improvely: Improvely provides an easy-to-use dashboard where businesses can track all of their marketing efforts in one place. This simplifies the process of monitoring and analyzing marketing campaigns, making it accessible even for businesses with limited technical expertise.
Improvely offers team logins, custom-branded client reports, and export tools, making it suitable for businesses working alone, with a team, or with clients. It also facilitates collaboration and reporting, which is beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses that may work with multiple stakeholders.
Improvely Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include conversion tracking, which helps businesses track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and channels by identifying the source of every signup and sale. This feature allows businesses to optimize their marketing efforts and allocate resources more effectively.
Integrations include Google, Microsoft Excel, Facebook Ads, AdRoll, Twitter, Microsoft Bing, and Taboola.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Generates customer profiles
- Provides multiple access control
- Free trial available
Cons:
- Limited integrations
- No demo available
Anura is a fraud detection and prevention platform that helps combat ad and click fraud in digital advertising and marketing campaigns. It provides advertisers, publishers, and marketers with the tools and insights to identify and mitigate fraudulent activities.
Why I picked Anura: I chose Anura because of its high accuracy in detecting ad fraud, which is crucial for safeguarding advertising budget and campaign performance. Anura's advanced algorithms and real-time data analysis enable it to examine various data points, such as IP addresses, user agents, geolocation, click patterns, and engagement metrics. This approach allows the platform to distinguish between genuine human interactions and fraudulent or bot-driven activities.
Moreover, Anura's machine learning capabilities continuously learn from new data and adapt to evolving fraud tactics, ensuring it stays ahead of emerging threats in the digital advertising landscape. This dynamic learning process enhances its accuracy over time, giving users confidence that they are receiving reliable and up-to-date insights about their traffic quality.
Also, Anura is TAG certified against fraud. The TAG certification is a rigorous and industry-recognized verification process demonstrating a company's commitment to combating ad fraud and promoting transparency and accountability within the digital advertising ecosystem.
Anura Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include a detailed analytics feature, which allows users to monitor traffic and fraud detection data as it happens. This feature enables advertisers and publishers to respond promptly to any fraudulent activity and take immediate action.
Integrations include Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok, and Twitter. You can also get additional integrations through the Anura API.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides detailed analytics dashboard
- Provides easy integration with Google Tag Manager
- Helps segment traffic based on source and campaign
Cons:
- Pricing details are not transparent
- Limited live phone support
ClickBrainiacs is a click fraud detection and prevention software for Google Ads campaigns.
Why I picked ClickBrainiacs: ClickBrainiacs has a rules feature that allows users to set up customized rules to detect and prevent click fraud. For example, you can set rules to block clicks from certain countries.
Once the rules have been set up, the software will automatically detect and block fake clicks based on the rules. You can also manually block or unblock IP addresses if needed.
ClickBrainiacs Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include the email alerts feature, which sends email notifications to users whenever it detects false clicks. This allows users to stay informed and take the necessary action.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Offers a one-year free trial
- Allows users to set up customized rules
- Provides downloadable PDF and Excel reports
Cons:
- The basic plan allows tracking of only one website
- Limited to Google Ads
ClickCease is a click fraud prevention and protection software that uses machine learning algorithms to help businesses identify and block false clicks and bots.
Why I picked ClickCease: ClickCease protects WordPress websites from bots and invalid traffic. It offers 24/7 bot zapping, a powerful detection and protection system that efficiently identifies and stops bots from infiltrating and engaging with your website. This unique approach redirects the bots to a 403 unauthorized page, effectively blocking their access. As a result, your website remains shielded from fraudulent activities, such as spam comments on blog posts and fraud checkouts on your eCommerce store.
Moreover, ClickCease offers a clear picture of your marketing analytics, ensuring you have accurate data and insights. By eliminating bot traffic, you can focus on genuine customers, enhance your website's performance and refine your marketing strategies. With ClickCease's robust and sophisticated bot detection, which includes over a thousand tests and evaluations, you can rest assured that only genuine visitors are reaching your website.
ClickCease Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include a world click fraud heatmap. This feature helps visualize where fraudulent clicks are coming from and how they interact with your site. The heatmap provides a visual representation of the geographic location of fraudulent clicks, allowing you to see where most fraudulent clicks are coming from. This information can be used to adjust your ad targeting and prevent fraudulent clicks from specific regions.
Integrations include WordPress, Instagram, Meta for Business, Google Ads, and Microsoft Advertising.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Free trial available
- Compatible with all WordPress builders and plugins
- Setting up is easy
Cons:
- No integration with Zapier
- Limited integrations
FraudScore is a fraud detection and prevention software designed to help businesses identify and combat various types of online fraud. It is primarily used by digital marketers, advertisers, and e-commerce companies that engage in online advertising, lead generation, and affiliate marketing activities.
Why I picked FraudScore: FraudScore uses an individual approach to each client to make them comfortable with the software. This approach ensures that the software is tailored to each client's specific needs, making it easier to use.
FraudScore has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and use. The software is designed to be easy to use, even for those who are not tech-savvy. It also provides workshops and training to analytics teams.
FraudScore Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include detailed reports and advanced traffic pattern recognition. The software also supports mobile and desktop traffic.
Integrations include Affise, TUNE, Everflow, AppsFlyer, Adjust, CAKE, Offerslook, and RedTrack. You can also get additional integrations through the FraudScore API.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Offers a free trial
- Provides detailed reporting
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Not suitable for small teams
- Integration can be complex
PPC Shield is a click fraud protection software that helps advertisers protect their Google Ads campaigns from wasteful clickers and fraudulent bots. It offers advanced features to monitor and analyze the quality of each click, taking into account various technical and behavioral factors.
Why I picked PPC Shield: PPC Shield analyzes various technical and behavioral factors to detect and prevent click fraud in Google Ads campaigns. It analyzes the IP addresses of the clicks to identify patterns and detect fraudulent activity.
It analyzes the patterns of clicks, including the frequency and timing, to detect abnormal click activity. The software checks for the use of proxy servers, which can be an indication of fraudulent clicks.
PPC Shield Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include automatic IP blocking of IP addresses associated with fraudulent activity, preventing further clicks from those sources.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides a 14-day free trial
- Great machine learning capabilities
- Easy to install and use
Cons:
- No integration with Zapier
- Limited to Google Ads
TrafficGuard is a cloud-based ad fraud protection solution that provides technology and data to enable advertisers to maximize efficiency and growth. TrafficGuard monitors and analyzes incoming traffic in real-time to identify suspicious patterns and anomalies that could indicate fraudulent behavior.
Why I picked TrafficGuard: TrafficGuard is the best solution for traffic monitoring because of its unique features. TrafficGuard's full-funnel, multipoint solution allows advertisers to monitor their traffic at every stage of the funnel, from impression to conversion, and ensure that their advertising budget is being spent effectively.
TrafficGuard also offers customized filters, which allow advertisers to monitor their affiliate partners' activity and ensure that they are not engaging in fraudulent behavior.
TrafficGuard Standout Features and Integrations:
Standout features include a compliance filtering feature, which filters out non-compliant traffic that does not meet specific criteria set by the advertiser. This feature ensures that advertisers' budgets are not spent on traffic that does not meet their requirements.
Integrations include WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Google Ads, Affise, Segment, TUNE, Singular, Kochava, and AppsFlyer.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The dashboard is intuitive and easy to navigate
- Fast and reliable
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Limited integrations
- Pricing details are not transparent
The Best Click Fraud Software Summary
Tools | Price | |
---|---|---|
PPC Protect | Pricing upon request | Website |
AppsFlyer | Pricing upon request | Website |
ClickGUARD | From $89/month | Website |
Improvely | From $29/month | Website |
Anura | Pricing upon request | Website |
ClickBrainiacs | From $15/month | Website |
ClickCease | From $69/month | Website |
FraudScore | From $390/month (billed annually) | Website |
PPC Shield | From $49/month | Website |
TrafficGuard | Pricing upon request | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few more click fraud software that didn’t make it to the top 10 list, but they still offer valuable features and functionalities.
- AdTector
Click fraud software for full traffic analysis
- PPC Secure
Click fraud software for unlimited domains
- CHEQ Essentials
For complex projects
- Clixtell
Video screen recorder to monitor clicks
- ClickProtector
For advanced customizations
- ClickReport
For pop-in warnings to discourage multi-clicks
- Fraud0
For tracking fraudulent programmatic interactions
- Singular
For pre-attribution rejections
- Click Guardian
For UK companies
- impact.com
Click fraud software for real-time monitoring and insights
- AdSecure
For advanced and power users
- Fraudlogix
For built-in corporate cyber security tools
- AdShield
For data-driven companies
- Lunio
For tracking on social media sites
Selection Criteria For Click Fraud Software
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best click fraud software for this article:
Key Features
In this section, I have listed the essential features that click fraud software must have:
- Real-time monitoring: The software continuously monitors ad clicks and user interactions in real-time to identify suspicious patterns.
- IP address analysis: Click fraud software analyzes IP addresses to identify repeated clicks from the same source, which may indicate fraudulent activity.
- Geolocation tracking: The software tracks the location of clicks to detect patterns that suggest click farms or bot-generated clicks.
- User behavior analysis: Click fraud detection tools examine user behavior to identify abnormal click patterns and distinguish between genuine and fraudulent clicks.
- Detailed reporting and analytics: This feature helps advertisers understand the extent of click fraud and the effectiveness of their detection efforts.
- Integration with ad platforms: The software may integrate with popular advertising platforms like Google Ads to automatically block fraudulent clicks and improve campaign performance.
Usability
Usability is an important factor to consider when choosing click fraud software. A user-friendly and intuitive interface ensures users can make the most of the platform. Look for software with a main dashboard that provides a clear and concise overview of your click fraud protection data and campaign performance. Important metrics, such as the number of clicks, blocked clicks, and fraud rate, should be prominently displayed for quick reference.
The software should also provide real-time monitoring of click activity, with updates and alerts as soon as fraudulent clicks are detected. Instant notifications through email or in-platform alerts can help you take prompt action to block suspicious clicks.
Software Integrations
Integrations are essential for click fraud protection software as they allow data exchange between the protection tool and other platforms used in your advertising ecosystem. Native integrations, which are direct and built-in, often offer better performance and ease of use compared to ones that require manual setup through APIs or third-party services like Zapier.
A good click fraud software should provide native integrations with popular advertising platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads.
Pricing
Businesses want to ensure that they are getting value for their money. Hence, pricing plays a critical role in determining whether the click fraud software's benefits justify the investment. By comparing different options, you can find a solution that fits your budget while meeting your needs.
Generally, the pricing of click fraud software ranges between $15/month to $500/month. The low-end price range offers basic features such as click monitoring and detection of obvious fraud patterns. Additionally, there may be restrictions on the number of campaigns or clicks that can be monitored per month.
The mid-price range may offer additional features, like IP blocking and device tracking. The high-end price range usually includes advanced fraud detection algorithms. It may also include customizable and detailed analytics reports and dedicated customer support.
Scalability
While looking for click fraud protection software, it’s important to prioritize software that can handle increased click volumes, complex campaigns, and accommodate seasonal spikes without compromising performance. To ensure scalability, look for a solution with proven performance under load and flexible infrastructure.
People Also Ask
In this section, you will find answers to some frequently asked questions related to click fraud.
How is click fraud detected?
Click fraud is detected using various techniques and tools, such as analyzing user behavior, identifying suspicious patterns, monitoring IP addresses, and employing machine learning algorithms. Advertisers and platforms use these methods to identify and filter out illegitimate clicks, ensuring the accuracy and effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.
How do you protect against click fraud?
To protect against click fraud, advertisers and online platforms implement preventive measures. They may use click fraud detection tools, set up filters to block suspicious traffic and monitor the quality of clicks.
Is click fraud legal?
Click fraud is considered illegal in most jurisdictions as it involves deceptive practices aimed at manipulating online advertising systems for financial gain. Perpetrators of click fraud may face legal consequences, and advertisers should take measures to protect their campaigns against such fraudulent activities.
Other Brand Protection Software Reviews
Here are some other brand protection software you may like:
- Brand Protection Software
- Brand Management Software
- Social Listening Tools
- GDPR Software
- Click Fraud Software
The Takeaway
Anura reports that 25% of all paid traffic is fake, which means that 1 out of every 4 clicks is fraudulent. Such fraudulent activities waste ad spend and hinder the potential for legitimate conversions and revenue generation. However, the best click fraud software will help you detect and mitigate false ad clicks.
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