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Here’s How To Stop Competitors From Clicking Your Ads

  • February 22, 2025
Stop Competitors From Clicking My Ads

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is based on competition.

You bid on keywords and phrases that will connect inbound leads to your content and sales copy, and your competitors bid on most of the same terms. You compete with many other businesses and your goal you want to get your best cost-per-click and conversion rates.

But so do your business competitors. And sometimes businesses turn to underhand tactics to get the upper hand – which can involve clicking on your ads until your budget is exhausted, or you fall off the top spot. This is a process known as click fraud, a type of ad fraud that is prevalent in online advertising, and yes, it is a commonplace occurrence.

But how can you tell if you have competitors clicking on Google Ads? And, more to the point, what can you do to stop them?

Related: Top 10 powerful PPC tools you can’t live without →

Do competitors really click your ads?

YES. Competitor click fraud is a reality.

It might be that your local business rivals make a habit of clicking your Google Ads manually whenever they see them, or it might be an organized campaign to sap your advertising budget by using tools such as outsourced click farms or bots.

We especially hear this from our clients in the home services space such as local plumbers, lock smiths, electicians and others. They are highly competitive industries that often use these tactics to help boost their own exposure.

Some sources suggest that about 17% of fraudulent clicks come from competitors clicking on Google Ads. Bot traffic is by far a bigger source of invalid clicks, but that’s not to say that stopping competitors clicking on your ads is the least of your worries.

When you consider that many of the most expensive keywords can be way in excess of $100 (sometimes much more according to our expensive keywords list), it makes sense to do everything possible to reduce your exposure to fraud in your PPC campaigns.

How do competitors click on your PPC ads?

Here are 3 main ways competitors can click on your ads:

  1. Manual clicking: The simplest way that competitors can deplete your ad spend is simply by repeatedly clicking your search ads. They may not sit there clicking on your ads all day, but they might make a point of clicking whenever it shows in their browser, or they might make it an office policy to click the competitors search results.
  2. Using automated clicking software: There are also software packages available that can repeatedly click on search ads, again, for very little actual outlay. Learn more about click farms →
  3. Hiring a “click farm”: Another method is by outsourcing the process to a click farm. It’s a simple process to find a service online that can generate fraudulent clicks on a huge scale, often for very little money. Learn more about click bots →

How can I tell if a competitor is clicking on my ad?

Here are a few signs to look for:
  • High volumes of clicks with low conversions
  • High bounce rates or short session durations
  • Traffic surges at unusual times
  • Out-of-geo clicks
  • Repeated clicks from the same IP address or range of IP addresses
To prevent click fraud, you can use your Google Ads account to block suspicious IP addresses. This involves using tracking software to identify suspicious IP addresses and then blocking them in your Google Ads account to prevent fraudulent clicks from competitors. While these activities on their own might not immediately signal click fraud, a combination of the above can suggest that it might be time to dig deeper. Read more: How to spot click fraud on my ads?

How can I block competitors clicking my PPC ads?

The options to protect your Google Ads campaigns from competitor click fraud and other types of ad fraud range from the free but fiddly, to the paid and more effective. These methods are essential for safeguarding your PPC campaigns from budget-draining clicks and ensuring higher ROAS. Here are the best ways to check and block those invalid clicks.

Method #1: Hide your ads with geotargeting

Geotargeting is the easiest option, but it’s also the least effective. First, you need to know where your competitor’s office is located. You can find this by searching their website, particularly the Contact page, or Googling their corporate information. You’ll then focus your geotargeting efforts on their location.

Exclude the selected business’s city from your geotargeting settings. Once done, your ad won’t show up for any users in that area, even the ones who are members of your target audience. If your service area requirements conflict with such an exclusion, consider moving on to a different ad-hiding option.

Geotargeting can be done in just a few minutes, and you don’t have to be an ad specialist or IT wizard to do it. The downsides are that it limits your exposure to your valid audience, and it’s not always as effective as you’d hope. Do a risk/reward analysis to decide if this is the right option for your business.

Method #2: Hide your ads with IP exclusions

IP exclusions are like geotargeting exclusions, except they exclude specific IP addresses instead of entire cities or regions. This is advantageous because you don’t forego your entire audience in your competitor’s location. It’s more effective than the first option in blocking specific users who are messing with your ads.

Google allows you to input IP addresses that you don’t want your ad served to. All you have to do is identify your competitor’s IP address, enter it into the appropriate space in your settings, and you’re done. Now you’re wondering how you can get your competitor’s IP address or what will happen if they start accessing your ads from a different location.

To the first question, you can email someone in the corporate team and record the outgoing IP address from the reply. The IP you get might be theirs, or it might be the email providers, but you can exclude it either way. Next, you can check your website server logs and match site visits to your competitor’s corporate location.

This can take some time and is not very precise. If there are many visits from the same address in your competitor’s city, there’s a good chance it’s them. Be aware, however, that you might be blocking a loyal customer. Still, you’re blocking fewer customers than you would in option one. Run another risk/reward analysis and gauge how you feel about this one, or move on to option three.

Method #3: Hide your ads with a click fraud detection service

Click fraud protection software, such as Fraud Blocker, monitors your ad click activity and automatically flags IP addresses generating a lot of clicks without a lot of conversions. Those IP addresses can then be automatically blocked from your ad campaigns. This protection works to prevent ad strategy spies and click fraud that’s meant to drive up your ad spend without any returns. It’s the most effortless and effective method of hiding your ads from select viewers, and it’s immediate, so you can prevent the consequences of competitor activity rather than react to it.

Find out who is clicking your ads

With Fraud Blocker, you can track the IP addresses of your competitors and prevent them from viewing and clicking your ads. 

We also protect against bots, accidental clicks, fake leads and more to help boost your advertising performance on Google and Facebook.

Our software is made for professional marketers and includes top tier support with no obligation to continue after your trial. Don’t run online ads without Fraud Blocker. Try our 7-day free trial today.

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