Method for performing real-time click fraud detection, prevention and reporting for online advertising
The present invention provides a method of detecting fraudulent clicks in an online environment to reduce fraudulent paid clicks for online advertisers. The method includes server side and client side code which combined enables a click verification web site to identify valid and invalid clicks and in real-time prevents advertisers from getting billed for fraudulent activity.
1. A method performed by a click verification web server for providing real-time click fraud detection and prevention, via a communication network, to an affiliate web server that presents an affiliate web page with at least one advertisement link to a requesting client device, the method comprising:
receiving a first request from an affiliate web server for at least one advertisement URL for an advertisement to be presented in an affiliate web page to a client device requesting the affiliate web page;
in response to the first request, generating a unique verification identifier associated with the requesting client device and the advertisement URL for the advertisement to be presented to the requesting client device in the affiliate web page;
storing the unique verification identifier and the corresponding advertisement URL in a database;
transmitting to the affiliate web server the unique verification identifier and the advertisement URL;
receiving, in real-time and prior to a second request for the advertisement URL by the requesting client device, user event data associated with the affiliate web page generated by client-side code executed by the requesting client device in response to the affiliate web page being loaded by the requesting client device, the user event data comprising a first received unique verification identifier;
receiving the second request for the advertisement URL initiated by the requesting client device, the second request comprising a second received unique verification identifier;
in response to the second request:
the click verification web server comparing the first and second received unique verification identifiers to the previously transmitted unique verification identifier stored in the database; and
the click verification web server analyzing the user event data for click fraud; and
verifying that the second request for the advertisement URL is legitimate if the first and second received unique identifiers match the previously transmitted unique verification identifier stored in the database and the user event data does not involve click fraud.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user event data comprises one or more of a onmousemovement event, a onmouseover event, a onmousedown event, a onclick event, a onmouseout event, a onmouseup event, a onmouse event, a onmove event, a onresize event, a onselect event, and a onblur event.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user event data comprises one or more of a user IP address, user agent browser information, a size of a web browser window, and a name of a current web page being viewed.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the unique verification identifier transmitted to the affiliate web server is embedded in the advertisement URL.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the user event data comprises performing analytics to determine if a click on the advertisement is legitimate.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the user event data comprises comparing the user event data against one or more predetermined rules associated with an affiliate providing the affiliate web page.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the analyzing the user event data comprises one or more of determining if the requesting client device is from a valid country, determining if a window size of a browser is greater than a predetermined threshold, determining if a cookie was generated, determining if the browser supports Javascript, and determining if a user IP address is valid.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting the requesting client device to an advertiser web page if the second request is verified as legitimate.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the second request for the advertisement URL is fraudulent if the first or second received unique verification identifiers do not match the previously transmitted unique verification identifier stored in the database.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising redirecting the requesting client device to a safe URL if the second request for the advertisement URL is fraudulent.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting the unique verification identifier and the advertisement URL to the affiliate web server further comprises providing the client-side code to the affiliate web server.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing the client-side code to the affiliate web server.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the client-side code comprises a client-side script.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the client-side script comprises Javascript.
15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the client-side code comprises a script tag added to the affiliate web page.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement URL comprises an affiliate tracking URL, and wherein the receiving the second request for the advertisement URL comprises receiving a redirect of the affiliate tracking URL.
17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second request for the advertisement URL is received from the affiliate web server.
18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second request for the advertisement URL is received from the requesting client device.
19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request from the affiliate web server comprises an HTTP request.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first request from the affiliate web server comprises one or more of a IP address and user agent browser information associated with the requesting client device.