The impact of non-human ad clicks on campaign conversion rates

Non-human ad clicks are among the most insidious and expensive problems in the digital advertising business; they silently increase costs, distort campaign performance metrics, and even reduce conversion rates without the marketer noticing.

In 2024, it was estimated that bad bots accounted for approximately 37% of online traffic, meaning that over one-third of users accessing online content were not humans.

According to Business of Apps, automated bots account for almost 47.4% of internet traffic, and approximately 30% of that traffic is malicious; that is, a large portion of ad interactions is artificial.

In this article, we will explore how non-human ad clicks affect the conversion rate of your campaign, why this is important to your marketing ROI, and most importantly, how you can solve this problem by ensuring that invalid traffic is blocked at the source by using tools such as ClickPatrol.

What are non-human ad clicks, and why they matter

At their core, non-human ad clicks are clicks or interactions with a digital ad that do not come from a legitimate user.

Essentially, these are clicks from artificial sources that attempt to mimic human behavior. Unlike legitimate clicks from users interested in an ad, non-human clicks are essentially throwing money down the drain, with no value in return.

According to industry studies, bot traffic accounts for about half of all internet traffic worldwide, meaning non-human clicks are not only common but also a fundamental component of the digital landscape, with the potential to completely sabotage advertising campaigns.

According to Statista, bot and AI traffic account for about 51% of all internet traffic, with human and bot traffic essentially split evenly.

Artificial clicks not only waste budgets but also give marketers a false sense of security, leading them to make poor decisions, such as increasing bids and budgets on advertising campaigns that are actually being sabotaged by non-human clicks.

How non-human ad clicks skew campaign conversion rates

Non-human ad clicks distort conversion rates by creating the appearance of engagement without any real user intent.

Artificially high numbers of clicks with no true intent

Inflated campaign metrics are one of the most immediate effects of non-human ad clicks.

When bots make clicks on your ads, they get counted as valid engagements with your campaign.

These clicks, however, are not a manifestation of actual interest. A bot does not read information, subscribe to email, or make purchases.

When such clicks appear in reporting dashboards, they give an illusion of engagement that never results in conversions.

For example, various reports on click fraud estimate that 11% to 14% of PPC clicks on paid search engines are from non-human sources.

Suppose you have a campaign with 10,000 clicks, and 1,000 to 1,400 of those clicks are fake; the metrics you are measuring to optimize your campaign are inherently flawed.

Such distortion may lead marketers to overrate the effectiveness of keywords, audiences, or ad creatives, resulting in suboptimal optimization decisions.

A campaign that you believe is doing well may actually be very appealing to bots.

Distracting advertising budget and reduced ROI

Non-human ad clicks not only inflate engagement metrics but also waste real budget.

Each non-human click that appears on your campaign burns your daily or monthly ad spend without contributing to a conversion.

According to industry estimates, 22% of the world’s digital advertising budget is wasted on fraud and invalid traffic.

To advertisers with large budgets, this is millions of dollars less spent on clicks that do not convert.

This loss becomes even more dramatic in areas with high cost-per-click (CPC) rates, such as legal services, finance, or healthcare, because each click is more expensive and each wasted one is a waste of budget.

Not only do the clicks go to waste when bots intercept your budget, but the campaigns also have lower ROI (return on investment).

This is particularly so when bots attack high-intent keywords, the ones that you are paying a premium for, because they are, in fact, artificially increasing clicks and generating no conversions.

Biased conversion rate optimization

Conversion rate (CVR) is another important performance indicator that shows how many of your ad clicks result in desired outcomes, such as purchases, form submissions, or signups.

If a large percentage of ad clicks are not from humans, the conversion rate is compromised.

As an illustration, when your campaign gets 10,000 clicks, and 2,000 of those are bot clicks that do not convert, your reported conversion rate is telling you a lot different than the truth.

Unless you identify and eliminate these invalid interactions, you may find yourself optimizing your landing page, call-to-action, or offer when the problem is actually false traffic.

This may result in budget changes and tactical moves that do not address the bottlenecks in your funnel, ultimately halting growth and leading your marketing team down the wrong path.

The hidden costs of non-human ad clicks beyond direct spend

Beyond wasted ad spend, non-human clicks quietly create hidden costs by corrupting data and draining valuable team resources.

Distorted analytics and audience targeting

Non-human clicks can also distort your analytics. Marketing analytics helps improve your marketing strategy by providing accurate data on clicks and audiences.

However, non-human interactions with your ad may not be natural, which can interfere with your data.

This could mean your audience data is being affected in a way that no longer reflects your audience, but instead reflects non-human behavior.

For example, your data may show that your ad is being clicked more in certain regions, but those regions may not be converting.

This could lead to wastage of resources in these regions.

Wasted time and resources

The impact of non-human clicks is felt not only in money but also in time. Marketing is an essential aspect of any organization, and marketing analysts spend most of their time analyzing data from different sources.

However, if your data is largely non-human, your analysts may end up wasting valuable time trying to understand it.

Common sources of non-human ad clicks

Non-human and click originate from various sources; here are a few:

Bots and automated scripts

One of the most prevalent sources of non-human ad clicks is automated bots. They can be basic scripts that crawl the Internet, create ad interactions, or more advanced botnets that simulate human behavior in terms of click patterns and timing.

According to industry reports, automated bots drive a significant portion of online traffic. In one industry study, about 37% of web traffic was malicious bot traffic, and only 49%was human traffic.

Although not every bot specifically targets ad clicks, a significant portion will naturally engage with ad placements as they crawl pages, triggering ad events, whether accidentally or deliberately.

Click farms and manual fraud

In another form of non-human ad clicks, click farms are specially set-up groups of low-paid workers who are instructed to manually click hundreds or thousands of ads.

These are not real user interactions and therefore act like invalid traffic in campaign analytics, even though they are technically human actions.

Inflating metrics via click farms is a common practice to bankrupt an opponent or meet volume requirements on advertising platforms.

They are not as prevalent as automated bots, but they still contribute to non-human ad-click data and manipulate conversion data.

Competitor sabotage

In others, non-human ad clicks might be associated with rival sabotage. Your competitors can also use bots or click farms to artificially click on your ads, draining your budget and reducing your campaign performance.

This form of activity is both unethical and may be difficult to detect as general bot traffic unless sophisticated detection software is used.

Industry-wide trends in non-human traffic and click fraud

Recent industry research has outlined a very clear scenario that non-human traffic and invalid clicks are not exceptions but rather challenges that digital advertisers face in the industry:

Studies indicate that more than 20% of all digital ad impressions are invalid, meaning they originate from non-human or suspicious sources and not from genuine users.

Estimates indicate that 22% of global digital ad spend is lost to fraudulent activity each year.

In 2024, bad bot traffic accounted for approximately 37% of all web traffic, underscoring the prevalence of automated traffic.

Industry forecasts indicate that losses from ad fraud could rise to $172 billion by 2028 if detection and prevention tools are not adopted on a large scale.

Detecting and blocking non-human ad clicks at the source

Past strategies of blocking known bot IPs or relying solely on network-level filters are no longer sufficient.

Bots evolve quickly, employing rotating IPs, residential proxies, and human-like timing patterns to evade simple measures.

To remain competitive, advertisers require proactive, behaviour-based detection that detects and prevents non-human behavior before it pollutes campaign data.

Instant invalid traffic identification

ClickPatrol monitors ad traffic to detect abnormal behavior. Using sophisticated algorithms and behavioral signals, it identifies non-human-like interactions, whether from bots, scripts, or coordinated invalid traffic.

This allows blocking invalid clicks at the source, preventing only real users from accessing your campaigns.

Analysis based on machine learning

Rather than rigid rules, ClickPatrol employs dynamic machine learning that adapts to new fraudulent methods.

It identifies low-level signals such as unrealistic click timing, anomalous geographic behavior, and recurring interaction patterns, and it is accurate with few false positives.

Better ROI and performance

Your data will be clean and more reliable with the invalid clicks removed. Real users are reflected in conversion rates, real prospects in budgets, smarter optimization decisions, and better ROI as wasted spend is minimised.

Best practices to complement fraud detection

Although a tool such as ClickPatrol is necessary, overall protection against non-human ad clicks also requires strategic practices:

Segment traffic by quality

Use audience segmentation and measure the performance of different traffic sources separately. This will help detect fishy behavior sooner and pinpoint campaigns that are vulnerable to invalid traffic.

Closely monitor conversion paths

Measure not only clicks but also subsequent actions such as form submissions, purchases, or engagement to verify that the clicks you are paying for are actually resulting in tangible outcomes.

Audit campaigns regularly

Even with protective tools in place, regular campaign audits will ensure that no fishy behavior goes unnoticed.

Protecting conversion rates from non-human ad clicks

The effect of non-human ad clicks on campaign conversion rates cannot be overemphasized.

Bots and invalid traffic distort every aspect of digital advertising performance, whether in exaggerated metrics and unjustified budget allocation or in falsely promising analytics and inadequate optimization choices.

According to industry statistics, a substantial share of digital traffic and advertising budgets remains exposed to invalid traffic and click fraud; therefore, marketers need to be proactive to protect their campaigns.

Custom solutions such as ClickPatrol, which identify and block invalid traffic before it reaches your website, are imperative to ensuring your advertising funds are allocated to actual human interaction, higher conversion rates, and increased ROI.

Instead of responding to fraud once the damage is done, ClickPatrol allows marketers to prevent fraudulent interactions before they can affect campaign performance.

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 traffic in PPC 2026: Industry benchmarks, wasted ad spend, and how ClickPatrol stops invalid traffic

How to safeguard campaigns from fake click generator bots (A long-term strategy)

How to seperate human clicks from non-human ad clicks in analytics