Security News > 2021 > November > Pay-per-click fraud is costing top tech companies, and you, hundreds of millions of dollars
With an estimated 14% of PPC costs being lost to fraud, all it takes is a look at the advertising budgets of top tech firms to see how much money they're wasting, says PPC Shield.
Click fraud prevention company PPC Shield has released the results of a study that concludes the biggest companies in the U.S. have lost a combined $717 million dollars to abuse of pay-per-click advertising fraud.
PPC click fraud involves repeatedly clicking on a website banner advertisement for, broadly, one of two purposes: Depleting an advertising budget, or artificially boosting ad revenue.
Regardless of the reason, click fraud is malicious and has a negative impact on both ad networks and advertisers.
"It also demonstrates the considerable threat that click fraud poses, highlighting that every company, no matter the size of its budget, should ensure that its spend on pay per click advertising is properly protected from fraud," PPC Shield said.
"The evolution of e-business in journalism, music publishing and other creative businesses has resulted in ad revenue being particularly important in these areas, and Gartner sees that many media distribution networks are taking direct action where click fraud is detected," Care said.