This month, for the first time in less than two years, we conducted a study session on clickfraud for two major specialized online agencies. Our knowledge and experience with adfraud and clickfraud has increased significantly over the past two years, and we wanted to provide an opportunity for our sales partners to broaden the knowledge of adfraud/clickfraud not only in Japan but also overseas. Lunio was also able to receive G2’s “Leader” acknowledgement as the vendor of choice for clickfraud prevention solutions throughout the entire 2022 season, and we explained in detail what exactly makes us different from other companies’ solutions.

By the way, do you know how big an industry issue clickfraud is? To be completely objective, University of Baltimore, USA, study in 2020 found that 14% of clicks in pay-per-click advertising (search and social ads) were fraudulent clicks. This figure does not include other display ads and video ads, so while it depends on the balance between ad and tool costs, the results support the need for countermeasures. (In Japan, the average fraudulent click rate is about 10%, which is a relatively low rate worldwide.)

The response to the study session for online specialized agencies, which was attended by nearly 40 people, was very positive. (Number of valid responses: 30)
First of all, the attributes of the participants were below.
Media buyers and consultants accounted for 80% of the audience, which was our main audience.

Regarding industry experience, about 70% of the participants had been in the industry for 0-3 years, which means that many of them had relatively little experience in the industry.

Regarding the content of the study session, 100% of the respondents answered very good or good, indicating that the study session was a beneficial time for all participants. Regarding the reasons for the answers to Q3, which we asked in Q4.
A) “I didn’t know about it in the first place” group
-I could understand well about basic click-flooding. I wanted to check how much the rate of unauthorized clicks is.
-I wanted to check how much the fraudulent click rate is.
-It was interesting and something I usually don’t think about.
-I was told that my client was going to install an anti-adfraud tool, but I didn’t really understand how it works or what adfraud is.
-I learned that fraudulent clicks are more common than I had imagined, and I learned about countermeasures against them.
-I had never been aware of fraudulent clicks, but now I am aware that it is very important. And the explanation was easy to understand!

B) “I was able to deepen my understanding! group
-The explanation was easy to understand.
-Skewed optimization and wasted clicks of 150,000 yen for ad-spend of 1,000,000 yen. The improvement examples were helpful. Thank you.
-I felt it was a very good service, but due to my lack of knowledge, I could not fully understand some parts.
-I would like to understand more about the services and the industry. I learned a lot of things that I only knew in words but did not know in detail, and I learned that I can use the unauthorized waste of advertising expenses, which is important for advertisers, at a reasonable price.
-It was very easy to understand from the explanation of the types of adfraud, the differences from other companies such as CHEQ, and the strengths of your company. I was wondering how and what kind of invalid clicks are really like the videos in India. I was wondering how and what fraudulent clicks are like in the Indian video, but now that a professional in the field of countermeasures is saying it, I can see the truth. It was easy to understand because you were able to explain it in a way that was easy to explain to the clients. Thank you very much.
-I had been concerned about the reality of fraudulent clicks, but had not actively investigated the situation. Thank you for explaining it so clearly in such a short time.

C) “Enlightened” group
-I was able to learn about the large number of invalid clicks on ads. I also realized that there are people who make a living from it and that it is one of the major issues that must be improved in the industry in the future. I felt that it is necessary to actively introduce these tools to accounts with a high possibility of ad fraud because they will not waste clients’ advertising money by using them.
-The information on each media and its movements will allow our members to make proposals with a story to tell.

This highlighted the lack of awareness of adfraud/clickfraud, and we hope that the industry will take action to address this issue by holding these workshops on a regular basis. We will continue to work with Lunio to address this important industry issue.

Masaki “Mark” Iino
Founder & CEO
SOPHOLA, Inc