Last updated: 12 July 2025
In this article, we explore the costs of ignoring click fraud and show - using real-world data - how Polygraph can more than pay for itself.
What is click fraud?
Let’s start with a clear understanding of how click fraud typically works:
A scammer creates a website and opens a publisher account with an ad network like Google Ads. This account lets them display other companies’ ads on their site.
Next, the scammer uses a click fraud bot and a residential or cellphone proxy service. The proxy routes the bot’s traffic through random residential or cellphone IP addresses, making each click look like it comes from a real user.
The scammer programs the bot with a list of ad keywords - such as “electrician,” “finance,” “ecommerce,” “fertilizer,” “dentist,” and many more. The bot searches Google for these keywords, clicks on ads and search results on the first page, and visits those websites. This “cookies” the bot with Google, so when it later visits the scammer’s own website, Google retargets it with ads for the sites it previously visited. The bot then clicks those ads, generating revenue for the scammer while causing advertisers to lose money.
This scam runs continuously, resulting in massive profits for the fraudster and heavy losses for advertisers. For example, we recently stopped a click fraud operation that was earning over $10 million per month.
Click fraud is a highly profitable scam, costing advertisers at least $100 billion annually.
Which industries are most affected by click fraud?
Using our click fraud detection data, we compiled a table of the top 20 industries impacted by click fraud. To reduce bias-since much of our data comes from clients experiencing high fraud levels-we applied a 20% fractional weighting, cutting the reported click fraud volume per industry by 80%. Even with this adjustment, click fraud remains alarmingly high.
| Industry | Average Click Fraud Rate | Average Cost per Click | Loss per 1,000 ad clicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Services | 12% | $36.93 | $4,432 |
| Energy | 15% | $21.36 | $3,204 |
| Fashion | 14% | $13.85 | $1,939 |
| Gambling | 15% | $11.74 | $1,761 |
| Agricultural | 16% | $10.82 | $1,731 |
| Insurance | 11% | $12.16 | $1,338 |
| Banking | 11% | $12.00 | $1,320 |
| Health | 13% | $8.61 | $1,119 |
| Water | 12% | $7.96 | $955 |
| Telecom | 14% | $6.34 | $888 |
| Automotive | 15% | $5.47 | $821 |
| Engineering | 11% | $6.89 | $758 |
| Green | 14% | $4.62 | $647 |
| Hospitality | 13% | $4.62 | $601 |
| Chemical | 12% | $4.64 | $557 |
| Leisure | 15% | $3.75 | $563 |
| Real estate | 14% | $3.88 | $543 |
| Dating | 17% | $3.15 | $536 |
| Textile | 14% | $3.55 | $497 |
| Travel | 14% | $2.61 | $365 |
Focus on the “Loss per 1,000 clicks” column, which shows the average financial loss each industry faces for every 1,000 paid ad clicks. For instance, if you’re in Home Services (plumbing, carpentry, etc.), expect to lose $4,432 per 1,000 clicks to click fraud.
As the table illustrates, you could be wasting thousands of dollars monthly. Simply check your ad network account to see how many clicks you paid for last month. If it’s in the thousands, Polygraph can help you stop losing money to click fraud.
How does Polygraph prevent click fraud?
At Polygraph, we track the activities of click fraud gangs and base our detection methods on real-world fraud techniques. We identify the servers, bots, and tactics used by fraudsters and only flag traffic as invalid if it is clearly fake.
First, Polygraph detects fake clicks with precision, identifying the bots behind the fraud and the tactics they use. Instead of just flagging suspicious activity, we actively disable these bots so they can no longer generate fake conversions.
Over time, as ad networks see your traffic consistently converts from real users, their algorithms retrain to prioritize sending you high-quality human traffic instead of bots.
This approach lets you keep your campaigns as broad and comprehensive as you want-there’s no need to remove valuable keywords or restrict your targeting to avoid fraud. Polygraph ensures that only genuine human traffic reaches your ads, protecting your budget while maximizing reach.
Plus, we provide detailed data on detected fraud so you can support refund requests with your ad networks and recover wasted spend.
You might notice that we don’t rely on IP address blocking-that’s because it’s a gimmick. Avoid any click fraud service that depends on gimmicks. Learn more in our article Why blocking IP addresses won't protect your ads from click fraud.
Should I use Polygraph to prevent click fraud?
If you’re running ads, click fraud is likely eating into your budget and lowering your campaign performance. Polygraph reduces bot traffic to low single digits-or even less than 1%-so nearly all your clicks come from genuine, high-quality visitors. This dramatically improves your return on ad spend (ROAS), far exceeding the cost of our service.
In fact, by cutting fraud and boosting real conversions, Polygraph essentially pays for itself - making it feel like a “free” upgrade that increases your revenue and protects your advertising investment.
In summary
You’re likely losing hundreds or thousands of dollars every month to click fraud. Ignoring this issue means wasting money and benefiting scammers. Polygraph offers a simple way to prevent click fraud, pays for itself many times over, and helps boost your ROAS while achieving your KPIs.