Competitor ad fraud detection: How to protect Google Ads from budget drain in 2026

Competitor ad fraud detection has become a critical requirement for advertisers running Google Ads at scale.

Statista-cited forecasts estimate global digital ad fraud losses will grow from approximately $88 billion in 2023 to nearly $172 billion by 2028.

Advertising budgets are under constant pressure from bots, click farms, and competitor-driven attacks aimed at draining spend, distorting performance data, and compromising bidding algorithms.

Without continuous detection, these attacks quietly erode ROAS long before they are noticed.

This article outlines a practical, scalable framework for detecting, stopping, and recovering from competitor-driven ad fraud.

Why continuous competitor ad fraud detection matters

Ad fraud is a constantly changing problem, from proxy rotators through residential botnets and app “ghost clicks.”

They adapt to a one-off solution, and a scheduled review can identify past errors, while ongoing protection stops funds from leaking in the future. Continuous monitoring:

• Keeps bidding and learning signals clean.
• By blocking false positives/negatives from entering the automated bidding system.
• Allows you to get information for requesting a refund, notifying platforms, or taking legal action.

10 Core components of a continuous competitor ad fraud detection strategy

Central ways to fight back against ad fraud include:

Establishes a clean baseline and telemetry:

Define what “normal” looks like for each campaign variable: click rate, CTR, conversion rate, session duration, geo distribution, device mix, and IP/ASN patterns.

Collect full telemetry for every click: timestamp, IP, user agent, referrer, landing page, and conversion path.

Instrument real-time analytics and anomaly detection:

Feed telemetry into an analytics engine that automatically flags anomalies in real time, such as a spike in clicks from a single ASN, repeating click patterns, and impossible conversion timings.

Identify repeat-offender behavior through fingerprinting & IP analysis:

Competitors will mostly use repeat IP ranges, VPNs, or predictable proxies. Track repeat offenders by tracking their IP, ASN, device fingerprint, referrer chains, and cookie behavior.

Google Ads integration with campaign controls:

Where possible, integrate detection with your Google Ads account; pause affected ad groups, exclude suspicious IP ranges, and reroute budget away from compromised auctions.

Block and validate whitelisting shortlist:

Blocking should be surgical; create temporary blacklists for confirmed offenders and maintain a whitelist for verified partners and genuine traffic sources.

ClickPatrol’s approach-blocking competitor IPs so they can’t see or click on ads, is one example of how surgical, automated blocks can be implemented at the account level while preserving reach to legitimate users.

Attribution hygiene (protecting conversion signals):

Ensure conversion tracking is strong, use server-side tracking where possible, and maintain separate test environments for attribution checks.

Provide audit trails and evidence packages:

Document every mitigation with evidence: raw click records, anomaly-detection output, steps taken, and the outcome.

Operationalize response playbooks:

Create playbooks for low, medium, and high severities: alert + observe for low confidence anomalies, block + pause for confirmed attacks, and escalate + report for sustained competitor assaults.

Routine red-teaming and third-party testing:

Run red team/simulated attacks to test detection and response. Employ independent verification-log audits, post-campaign analyses ensure that your system flags what it should.

Continuous improvement and transparency with stakeholders:

Reporting detection metrics to clients/stakeholders, including invalid clicks prevented, refunded spend recovered, IPs blocked, and impact on ROAS.

Leverage those reports to justify investment in ongoing protection.

Measurement: KPIs for competitor ad fraud detection

Categorize and track these to understand value:

• Percent of clicks marked as invalid (per month).
• Spend recovered/refunded after platform disputes.
• Reduction of the costs per conversion by blocks.
• The number of confirmed competitor IPs blacklisted.

Legal and platform reporting best practices

In cases where you identify indicators of a potential competitor-driven attack, you must respond with a structured, justifiable approach.

Start by collecting and safeguarding necessary logs and data, such as timestamps, click IDs, IP address ranges, user agents, and traffic flow, that are appropriate and useful in these circumstances.

In environments where privacy and data protection regulations apply, it is necessary that personally identifiable information be properly anonymized without compromising the integrity of the data.

Then, you need to write and submit an official report concerning your observations and suspicions of invalid activity directly to Google Ads using their designated invalid activity reporting mechanisms. Well-documented reports are more likely to receive serious consideration and remediation.

If you are facing repeat or obviously fraudulent invalid activity, it is also important to consider consulting an attorney early on to evaluate potential liability and what steps you might wish to take in response to the law.

In some places, persistent click fraud by a rival could potentially give rise to contractual or even criminal liability.

How ClickPatrol fits into a continuous competitor ad fraud detection strategy

ClickPatrol supports competitor ad fraud detection by focusing on one of the most damaging attack vectors: repeated competitor visibility and abusive clicking from identifiable IPs and networks.

By automatically detecting suspicious patterns and blocking competitor IP addresses, ClickPatrol prevents attackers from repeatedly seeing or clicking ads, cutting off budget drain at the source.

This approach significantly shortens the attack window. Competitors no longer have time to analyze landing pages, monitor bidding behavior, or drain spend through repeated clicks.

At the same time, ClickPatrol applies review safeguards to avoid over-blocking, ensuring legitimate traffic and reach are preserved while malicious activity is removed.

Protecting your PPC campaigns: A proactive approach to combating competitor ad fraud

Competitor ad fraud does not occur in fixed patterns or predictable intervals. It evolves continuously, using rotating IPs, proxy networks, and automated behavior designed to bypass one-time checks.

As a result, adequate protection depends on continuous detection of competitor ad fraud, not on periodic reviews or reactive clean-ups.

A sustainable detection strategy combines baseline traffic modeling, real-time anomaly detection, repeat-offender analysis, precise blocking, attribution hygiene, and detailed evidence collection.

When these components operate together, advertisers protect bidding signals, preserve ROAS, and maintain confidence in performance data across Google Ads campaigns.

By embedding competitor ad fraud detection into daily PPC operations and reinforcing it with automated tools like ClickPatrol that block competitor IPs before damage occurs, advertisers regain control over spend, data integrity, and long-term campaign scalability. Detection is no longer a defensive afterthought; it becomes an operational advantage.

Abisola

Meet Abisola! As the content manager at ClickPatrol, she’s the go-to expert on all things fake traffic. From bot clicks to ad fraud, Abisola knows how to spot, stop, and educate others about the sneaky tactics that inflate numbers but don’t bring real results.

View all posts by Abisola (Abisola)

Related Articles

Bot clicks on ads: Detect and prevent invalid traffic to protect ad spend

ClickPatrol Solidifies Market Position with Crozdesk’s “Quality Choice” Badge

Competitive ad monitoring framework (2025): Detect click sabotage & block competitors with ClickPatrol