Bing Ads click fraud: How to detect, stop, and protect your PPC budget in 2025

Bing Ads (formerly Microsoft Advertising) offers a cost-effective alternative to Google Ads, with a 3.95% share of global search as of June 2025.

In 2024, about $72.37 billion in ad spend was lost to this issue.

Nearly half of web traffic is non-human, and one-third consists of “bad bots” capable of generating fraudulent clicks.

While Microsoft actively filters out bot-like and suspicious activity, no system is foolproof.

This article will cover types of fraud, Microsoft’s protections, and actionable steps for advertisers.

What is Bing Ads click fraud?

Bing Ads click fraud is a type of online advertising fraud that occurs when individuals or bots deliberately click on your Bing Ads without any genuine interest in your product or service.

These Bing Ads click fraud are meant to:

• Drain an advertiser’s budget (also known as competitive fake clicks).
• Gain undeserving revenue for website owners or publishers (affiliate abuse).
• Influence advertising data to deceive advertisers or platforms.
• Generate revenue for dishonest publishers or websites.

The global challenge of click fraud and why it is widespread

Click fraud is a serious issue across all PPC platforms.

Although Bing Ads receives less traffic than Google Ads, it still faces significant threats, particularly in highly competitive industries such as finance, insurance, travel, healthcare, legal services, and real estate.

Why it is widespread includes:

• Low execution cost: Cheap labor, bots, and scripts make it easy to run fraud at scale.
• Easy to access tools: VPNs, proxy networks, and automation tools like Puppeteer or Selenium are widely available.
• Strong financial motive: Fraudsters, including site owners in ad networks, profit from inflated clicks.
• Weak enforcement: Cross-border complexity and poor technical capacity make legal action rare.
• High profit margins: A single botnet can generate millions of fake clicks daily with minimal costs.

Types of Bing Ads click fraud

The types of Bing Ads click fraud include:

1) Competitor click fraud:

Businesses click on their rival companies’ ads to exhaust their budgets and reduce their visibility in search results.

2) Bot click fraud:

Bots replicate human clicks in huge quantities.

Botnets can consist of thousands of compromised devices clicking simultaneously.

3) Click farms:

Teams of low-compensated workers are hired to manually click on ads around the clock using multiple IPs and devices to remain undetected.

4) Publisher fraud:

Webmasters carrying Bing Ads inflate ad interactions to earn more money from Microsoft’s ad network.

5) Proxy/VPN abuse:

Scammers utilize multiple proxy IPs to mimic geographically distributed users and circumvent automatic filters.

How Bing Ads handles click fraud

Microsoft Advertising uses several layers of protection:

1) Real-time filtering:

Detects and blocks suspicious click patterns in real-time, preventing them from reaching the advertiser’s dashboard.

2) Machine learning:

It involves continuously learning from new fraud patterns and historical data.

3) Manual review teams:

Sophisticated teams manually review reports of unusual behavior.

4) Post-click analysis:

Discovered invalid clicks are removed, and advertisers can be reimbursed.

The financial and performance costs of Bing Ads click fraud

Bing Ads click fraud causes both direct and indirect costs, significantly impacting advertisers’ plans and budgets.

1) Financial drain:

Advertisers are billed for every click fraud, and the costs quickly accumulate, especially in verticals where CPCs are high.

2) Misleading analytics:

Click fraud artificially inflates metrics like CTR (click-through rate) and bounce rate, depressing conversion rates, which makes campaign optimization difficult.

3) Reduced ROI:

Since click fraud never converts, campaigns appear ineffective and wasteful, resulting in a lower overall return on investment.

4) Ad rank and quality score issues:

Low engagement rates caused by click fraud can lower ad performance and reduce visibility, even in valid auctions.

How to detect click fraud in Bing Ads

Detecting click fraud in Bing Ads includes:

1) Device and IP tracking:

Monitor traffic logs to identify repeated clicks on the same device or IP address.

2) Geolocation analysis:

Look for clusters of clicks from unusual or off-topic geographies.

3) Behavioral analysis:

Short session durations, high bounce rates, and no user interaction are all signs of non-human traffic.

4) Conversion monitoring:

When clicks increase while conversions remain level or decrease, click fraud could be the culprit.

5) Click frequency monitoring:

A sudden increase in clicks from one place or at a specific time might indicate suspicious behaviour.

6) Third-party fraud detection tools:

Multiple tools assist in automating fraud detection and prevention, such as ClickPatrol, ClickCease, PPC Protect, Fraud Blocker, etc.

How Microsoft investigates and refunds fraudulent clicks

Here is how Microsoft handles investigations and refunds for fraudulent or invalid ad clicks on its advertising platforms:

How Microsoft investigates fraudulent clicks

They include:

1) Click classification system:

Each click is automatically seen as standard-quality, low-quality, or invalid.

Only standard-quality clicks are billable; low-quality and invalid ones typically are not charged.

2) Automated filters and real-time monitoring:

Microsoft Advertising employs sophisticated, machine-learning-driven systems to detect fraudulent or bot activity by analyzing IPs, click patterns, user behaviour, historical data, and more.

3) Human review when needed:

For ambiguous cases, Microsoft’s Traffic Team will conduct manual reviews of suspicious click activity and may issue credits for any billable clicks later identified as invalid.

4) Proactive legal response:

In high-profile click fraud schemes such as “click laundering,” Microsoft has not only refunded advertisers for invalid traffic but also taken legal action to protect its ad platform’s integrity.

Refund process for fraudulent clicks

They include:

1) Automatic adjustments:

If clicks initially charged as standard-quality are later deemed invalid or low-quality, Microsoft will automatically credit your account.

2) Account deactivation refunds:

If your account is deactivated due to invalid clicks, Microsoft will attempt to automatically refund your primary payment method if it has a refund-eligible balance.

3) Claim-based refunds via support:

If you believe there is unaddressed fraudulent activity, you can contact Microsoft Advertising support via chat, phone, or through your account manager and request an investigation.

4) Third-party verification path:

On the broader Microsoft Monetize platform, there is a formal claim process for invalid traffic.

You have to file within 10 days of the month’s end, submit evidence via approved verification partners.

Microsoft then validates and issues credit notes based on the calculated cost of invalid traffic

How to protect your Bing Ads campaigns from click fraud

Here are ways to protect Bing Ads campaigns from click fraud:

1) Enable IP exclusions:

Block known bad sources using Bing Ads’ IP exclusion feature.

2) Use dayparting and geo-targeting:

Restrict campaigns to hours and areas where legitimate traffic is more likely to appear.

3) Set daily budgets and CPC caps:

To cap daily expenditure on fraud-prone campaigns, thereby restricting exposure to fraud.

4) Implement conversion tracking:

Track events indicating real engagement (e.g., form submissions, calls) to gauge click quality.

5) Regular campaign audits:

Monitor reports regularly for abnormalities in key metrics such as click-through rate, bounce rate, and time on site.

6) Use fraud detection software:

Consider using click fraud detection software like ClickPatrol that automatically excludes suspicious IPs and provides forensic data.

7) Request click investigation:

If you see possible fraud, report it to Microsoft Advertising support and request that a complete review and possible refunds be conducted.

Legal and regulatory considerations for Bing Ads click fraud

Bing Ads click fraud is a cybercrime in most legal jurisdictions, yet it is not enforced.

Obstacles are:

• Anonymity of fraudsters,
• Cross-jurisdictional challenges,
• Difficulty in obtaining technical evidence,
• Lack of resources in law enforcement organizations.

Real-world Bing Ads click fraud cases and lessons learned

A UK advertiser spent over £20,000 on a Bing Ads campaign that resulted in 42,700 clicks but zero sales.

The traffic mostly came from Microsoft’s partner network, including low-quality sites like parked domains.

Key problems:

• Almost 100% bounce rate
• No conversions
• Microsoft refused to issue refunds.
• After turning off partner traffic, clicks dropped by 80%, and conversions improved.

This illustrates how inadequate transparency and ineffective fraud filters can result in substantial losses.

Lessons learned

• Monitor traffic sources closely, especially partner networks.
• High clicks with no sales are a red flag. Act fast.
• Test with Bing-owned sites before expanding to partners.

Stop wasting Ad spend: Take action against Bing Ads click fraud today

Bing Ads click fraud poses a significant threat to advertisers, resulting in inefficient spending, misleading analytics, and reduced ROI.

Despite Microsoft’s built-in defences like real-time filtering and manual review, most campaigns remain vulnerable, particularly to bot traffic and low-quality partner sites.

Advertisers should proactively implement measures such as IP exclusions, geotargeting, conversion tracking, and third-party fraud detection software.

Audit and analyze your campaigns regularly to spot suspicious activity early and prevent further losses.

When left untreated, click fraud can disrupt PPC success and undermine digital ad performance. Protect your budget, detect click fraud, and optimize PPC performance.

FAQs

Q. 1 Does Bing Ads automatically refund click fraud?

Microsoft can refund click fraud, although, unlike Google Ads, refunds are not automated and are dealt with manually on a case-by-case basis.

You typically need to request a review.

Q. 2 What tools block click fraud?

Tools like ClickPatrol, ClickCease, PPC Protect, and Fraud Blocker all integrate with Bing Ads to block fake traffic and provide real-time monitoring.

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