Over that last year multiple businesses have seen a massive decrease in the number of qualified leads coming in through meta ads. The volume is still there but the response when the lead is followed up can range from “I have no idea how you got this number” to “I’m retired, I wouldn’t have filled out your form”.
That are many culprits to the rise in bad leads but the main one comes down to good old fashioned greed. I’m referring to click fraud and scammers looking to make some quick money.
Click Fraud
Click fraud has been around for years and major ad platforms like google and meta don’t do anything of substance to block it. Why? Well the hard truth is that would cut into their revenue and they would rather you just factored in the costs of bad traffic.
In Q4 of 2025 the numbers don’t lie:
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Meta (Facebook): 6%
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Meta (Instagram): 38%
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Meta (Audience): 67%
A user called polygraph on reddit is actually doing a doctorate on the subject but the general idea is as follows:
Scammers sign up for adsense or metas ad share program. They insert the ad code on to their site and start sending bots to visit the sites, interact, fill out forms etc. When meta get’s paid, so do they. In Meta’s defense it’s probably really difficult to catch and shut these guys down, but if their entire revenue model depends on advertisers, you would think it would be priority #1.
How do You Combat Click Fraud
The answer is never to just quit. As tempting as it is to stop ads on these platforms they are kind of necessary for a business to thrive online. There are a few options you can try to prevent click fraud that I’ll list here but just being aware is a good first move.
1. Try a platform that blocks click fraud. Companies like clickcease will monitor and actively block spam accounts from wasting your budget. The hang up is they aren’t exactly cheap. Clickcease on last check was around $700 for one account annually. I’m not saying it’s not worth it, but that’s a hefty price for something I believe the platform should handle.
2. Removing high spam locations. The other option I like is to block major cities that are hubs for data centers and spam networks. You will probably get almost no spam if you only target say Kingman Arizona vs. Phoenix. Now of course you’re going to miss out on a lot of traffic, but you can target thousands of small towns to avoid the spammers.
3. Focus on Re-marketing: This is probably my favorite which is that you spend your budget on re-marketing to audiences vs. cold outreach. Generally people need about 7 touch points before they will consider buying from you so getting in front of them over and over is good for long term conversions.
4. Remove Audience Network: Each platform is different but for Meta you can remove the audience network which will not allow your ads to be shown off their platform. I have noticed though that Meta has multiple points in the ad process where they want to expand your reach and so if you aren’t careful you’ll still show on every ad slot they can get you for.
Summary
Click fraud won’t be going away anytime soon. As long as there is money to be made in any way, there will be people willing to do whatever it takes to make it. Take as many precautions as you can and always be aware that only you have your best interests in mind when it comes to your advertising. Best of luck.
