Bot Traffic
Automated scripts generating fake clicks at scale. Accounts for ~38% of the fraud Ciaro blocks.
~38% of blocked fraudClick fraud wastes billions every year through bot clicks, click farms, competitor sabotage, and malicious scripts. Juniper Research puts global ad fraud losses at $84 billion annually. Across 1400+ accounts audited at Admoon over 24 months, the average invalid traffic rate was 19% — ranging from 8% in B2B SaaS to 34% in legal services.
The average advertiser we audit loses $1,200 per $10,000 spent to bot clicks, click farms, and competitor sabotage. Platform filters across Google, Meta, and Microsoft catch only a fraction of sophisticated invalid traffic.
Fake clicks create distorted CTR, CPC, and conversion rate data. A 2024 ANA study found 22% of digital media budgets are consumed by invalid traffic before reaching any real human.
Invalid traffic spikes push effective CPA higher and corrupt remarketing audiences. In our 700-account dataset, campaigns recovered 15–30% CPA efficiency within 60 days of installing Ciaro.
Ciaro integrates with Google Ads using Google's official OAuth authorization and the Google Ads API. When you choose to connect your account, Google asks you to sign in and grant Ciaro permission — you stay in full control and can revoke access at any time from your Google Account settings.
So Ciaro can analyze incoming traffic, score each click for fraud signals, and report invalid-traffic rates back to you.
So Ciaro can automatically add fraudulent IPs and keep your campaigns protected in real time, instead of you doing it manually.
Ciaro uses only Google's official APIs — never scraping — and our use of Google data complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. Read how we handle your data in our Privacy Policy.

This wasn't a startup opportunity for us. It was an operational problem we lived with every day. We had real skin in the game. I've spent the last 12 years running paid campaigns at Admoon — a performance agency I co-founded that currently manages roughly $50M/month in active ad spend (Jan 2024 – Mar 2026 sample window) across more than 7,000 client accounts on Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
Click fraud is the single biggest problem I've watched clients quietly lose money to. Not the kind platforms catch. The sophisticated kind — competitor IPs cycling through VPNs, click farms using real devices, bots that mimic human behavior well enough to pass built-in filters.
We had skin in the game long before Ciaro existed. We weren't outside observers studying click fraud academically. We were the people watching CPCs rise at 2am, seeing fake leads hit CRMs, and explaining wasted spend to clients every month. Ciaro was built from that frustration.
Ciaro integrates through official APIs from each ad platform. Public reviews, independent benchmark reports, and case studies are being prepared for release — see our methodology for how internal benchmark data is measured.
Public review profiles (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot), benchmark PDFs, and customer case studies will be linked here as they are published. We avoid third-party claims that can't be independently verified today.
Click fraud is the practice of generating fake or invalid clicks on paid digital ads using bots, click farms, competitor sabotage, or malicious scripts.
Ad fraud is the broader umbrella that also includes fake impressions, fake conversions, domain spoofing, and attribution manipulation.
Not all invalid traffic looks the same. Here are the six categories Ciaro monitors and blocks in real time.
Automated scripts generating fake clicks at scale. Accounts for ~38% of the fraud Ciaro blocks.
~38% of blocked fraudCoordinated groups of low-paid workers clicking ads from real devices to avoid detection.
Real devices, fake intentRivals clicking your ads to exhaust your daily budget. Common in legal, insurance, and home services.
High-CPC verticalsFraudsters masking real IPs through VPNs, proxies, and Tor networks to bypass basic filters.
Bypasses basic filtersManipulated device fingerprints making one machine appear as many unique users to ad platforms.
1 device, many identitiesBot-generated form fills and fake leads that pollute your CRM and corrupt campaign signals.
Corrupts CRM dataMost advertisers don't realize they're losing 10–30% of their budget to invalid traffic.
Ciaro will analyze your last 30 days of paid traffic, show you exactly what percentage is invalid, and generate a full click fraud report.
Adjust the sliders to estimate your monthly loss to invalid traffic.
Select your industry above to see your specific fraud rate benchmark from our 700-account dataset.
Based on 1400+ ad accounts audited across Google, Meta, and Microsoft between January 2024 and March 2026.
| Industry | Avg. Invalid % | Range | Primary Fraud Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Services | 0% | 22–47% | Competitor clicks |
| Home Services (HVAC, Plumbing) | 0% | 18–41% | Competitor + bot |
| Insurance | 0% | 19–38% | Bot traffic |
| Finance & Lending | 0% | 15–33% | Bot + click farms |
| eCommerce | 0% | 9–28% | Bot traffic |
| Healthcare | 0% | 11–26% | Competitor clicks |
| Real Estate | 0% | 10–24% | Competitor clicks |
| B2B SaaS | 0% | 4–14% | Bot traffic |
| Average (all verticals) | 0% | 8–34% | — |
Ciaro combines machine learning with multi-channel click data to score and block every click in under 50ms across every paid media channel you run.
Every click captured with 30+ data points across Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
8 detection layers run in parallel: IP, device, behavioral, geographic, VPN, session, historical, cross-campaign.
Our ML model assigns a 0–100 fraud score in under 50ms per click.
Flagged IPs auto-sync to Google, Meta, and Microsoft exclusion lists in real time.
"The false-positive question is the first thing every client asks. Our answer has always been: show them the audit log. We never lost a real customer."
Ciaro delivers complete ad spend protection, higher campaign ROI, and clean ad data through deep integrations across every paid media channel you run.
Recover 15–30% of wasted ad spend in the first 60 days of using Ciaro.
Campaign ROI improves by an average of 22% within the first 90 days.
Stop retargeting bots. Every audience list rebuilt from verified human traffic only.
Average 18% conversion rate increase within 90 days across our customer base.
Every metric reflects real human behavior. No bot noise, no inflated CTR, no fake conversions.
Clean traffic feeds smarter Smart Bidding. Your algorithm optimizes on real intent, not fraud patterns.
Meaningful CPA reductions visible within 14 days of installing the tracking script.
Block repeat competitor clicks automatically. Progressive ban system escalates persistent offenders.
Unified detection across Google, Meta, and Microsoft. One dashboard, every channel protected.
Every essential tool, in every plan. No enterprise upgrades, no feature paywalls.
All features included from day one<50ms per click decision.
Auto-synced to your ad platforms.
30M+ IP database, hourly updates.
Replay any suspicious visit session.
Auto-generated platform reimbursement exports.
Geo-breakdown of valid vs. invalid traffic.
Unified view across all platforms.
Integrate fraud data into your stack.
Our API, webhooks, IP exclusions, and conversion intelligence layer sync seamlessly with your entire stack.
Ciaro connects directly to the Google Ads API, Meta Marketing API, and Microsoft Advertising API. IP exclusions, custom audiences, and fraud filters sync automatically across all three.
Detect SDK spoofing and click injection before they corrupt your attribution data and inflate mobile install numbers.
Ciaro's conversion intelligence engine feeds cleaned data back into custom audiences on every platform — retargeting real buyers, not bots.
Connect GA4 for end-to-end fraud protection across every paid media channel. One view, every touchpoint.
Three customers, three industries — measurable outcomes within 90 days.
"We knew competitor clicks were a problem in legal. We didn't know they were eating a third of our budget."
— Marketing Director, regional law firm (name withheld)Competitor clicks concentrated in specific IP clusters were eating a third of the budget. CPA climbing from $120 → $180.
"The bot traffic was silently killing our remarketing. The video screen recorder feature was a revelation."
— Growth Lead, fashion eCommerce brand (name withheld)22% invalid traffic rate. Remarketing audiences corrupted by bot traffic. Conversion data unreliable.
"Our competitors were clicking us every morning at 8am. Ciaro caught it on day one."
— Owner, multi-location HVAC service (name withheld)Competitor sabotage at 8am weekdays. Click-to-call ads receiving fake calls. Budget burning before noon.
A quick shortlist view of how Ciaro compares to the leading click fraud tools. Last compared: April 22, 2026.
| Feature | ★ Recommended Ciaro | ClickCease | ClickGuard | Lunio | Clixtell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $19/mo | $63/mo | $74/mo | Custom | $15/mo |
| Heatmaps & scroll maps | ✓Built-in | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI-powered detection models | ✓ML + behavioral | Rule-based | ✓Basic ML | ✓ML | Rule-based |
| Auto IP & device exclusion | ✓Auto-sync | ✓ | ✓ | ✓Manual review | ✓ |
| Bot & click farm detection | ✓Bot + farm | ✓Bots only | ✓Bots only | ✓Bot + farm | ✓Bots only |
| Setup time | ~2 min | ~5 min | 30–45 min | Sales demo | ~10 min |
| Real-time blocking speed | <50ms | Real-time | Real-time | Real-time | Real-time |
| Google + Meta + Microsoft native | ✓All 3 native | ✓Manual MS | ✓All 3 | ✓13+ platforms | Google + Bing only |
| Session / screen recording | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | ✗ | ✓ |
| Refund claim reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| False-positive rate published | ✓<0.3% | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free trial or audit | ✓Audit + 30-day | ✓Free trial | ✓7-day trial | ✗ | ✓14-day trial |
| Call tracking built-in | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Unique feature |
Ciaro operates from a Netherlands data center with GDPR and CCPA compliance and security controls modeled on ISO 27001. EU customer data stays in the EU. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II audits are in progress — see /security for current certification status.
Full GDPR compliance. EU data subject rights supported end-to-end. EU customer data stays in our Netherlands data center.
CCPA compliance for California-resident data. Complete opt-out flows, data deletion on request.
CPPA compliance (California Privacy Protection Agency). Ongoing regulatory alignment.
Security controls modeled on the ISO 27001 framework. Independent certification is in progress — see /security for current status.
Ciaro's Google Ads integration is built against Google's published Ads API partner requirements and uses only official APIs — not scraping.
Our internal framework for unified protection across Google Search, Meta Social, and Microsoft Bing inventory.
Performance marketing agencies, in-house PPC teams, and DTC/eCommerce brands spending $5K+/month on Google Ads, Meta Ads, or Microsoft Ads — especially those running Performance Max, Smart Bidding, or lead-gen campaigns where a polluted conversion signal degrades the auction.
When CPCs are climbing without a clear auction reason, when CRM lead quality is dropping, when chargebacks are tied to bot-driven fake conversions, or when Smart Bidding is mis-training on invalid clicks. Also during competitor-attack periods and product launches with elevated traffic.
Built by an active PPC agency currently managing roughly $50M/month in ad spend (Jan 2024 – Mar 2026 sample window). Methodology, sample windows, and limitations for every published metric are documented at /methodology. The under-0.3% false-positive rate is measured across 1,400+ internally audited accounts (Mar–Apr 2026). Integrations use official Google Ads, Meta, and Microsoft APIs — not unauthorized scraping. Authority signals such as G2/Capterra ratings, ISO 27001, and SOC 2 are not claimed until independently certified.
Manual blocking caps at ~500 IPs per Google Ads account and requires daily review. Ciaro automates IP exclusion sync via the Google Ads API, rotates entries to stay under platform limits, and uses behavioral signals (not just IP) so rotating-proxy bots are caught — something a static IP list cannot do.
Real-time scoring, automatic IP exclusion sync to Google Ads, refund-claim reports for invalid traffic, and Performance Max + Smart Bidding compatibility. See /solutions/google-ads.
Detection on Meta and Microsoft (Bing) Ads with the same signal stack. IP exclusion sync where supported by the network's API; detection-only reporting where not. TikTok Ads is detection-only.