Our protected campaign network
Anonymized signal data from 2M+ campaigns across Google, Meta, and Microsoft Ads. The largest single source.
Research · 4 reports · Quarterly cadence
Click fraud research, backed by numbers.
We pull anonymized data from millions of protected campaigns each quarter and turn it into the industry's most honest fraud reports — citable, methodology-transparent, and free.
$0B
Annual Ad Fraud Cost
Estimated global cost of digital ad fraud to advertisers.
Juniper Research, 2025
0%
Bot Traffic Share
Percentage of all web traffic generated by automated bots.
Imperva Bad Bot Report, 2025
0%
Invalid PPC Clicks
Average share of PPC clicks classified as invalid traffic.
MyClickShield internal data, 2025
0%
Year-over-Year Increase
Annual growth rate of click fraud activity across our customer base.
MyClickShield internal data, 2025
How we collect this data
Our research is grounded in three sources. Numbers we can't validate, we don't publish.
Public threat databases
Cross-referenced with IAB/MRC IVT classifications, Spamhaus, public bot signatures, and ASN registries.
Quarterly audit cycle
Each report goes through a 4-stage internal review (data, methodology, language, citations) before publication.
Featured report
Our latest research. Download with one email — no profile, no sales call.
Q1 2026 Report
The State of Click Fraud — Q1 2026
The State of Click Fraud — Q1 2026
Our flagship quarterly. Vertical-level fraud rates, platform comparisons (Google vs Meta vs Microsoft), and what changed in the last 90 days. This issue: a deep look at Performance Max IVT, the rise of residential-proxy traffic, and a methodology refresh.
- Per-vertical fraud rates for 14 industries — legal services lead at 21.4% invalid traffic.
- Side-by-side IVT comparison: Google PMAX vs standard Search vs Display.
- New: residential-proxy traffic share has tripled YoY across our protected network.
- Methodology appendix updated for the 2026 IAB IVT v3 taxonomy.
Free · No profile to fill · No sales call
All reports
The full research library. Each report is one email away.
The State of Click Fraud — Q1 2026
Bot Traffic Analysis — 2026 Edition
Deep-dive on automated traffic patterns: scrapers, click bots, ad-injection malware, residential-proxy networks, and their measurable impact on ad spend.
Industry Fraud Benchmarks 2025
Click fraud rates by industry vertical AND by ad platform. Pulls 18 months of data from 200K+ accounts spanning legal, insurance, e-commerce, B2B SaaS, home services, and more.
Click Fraud Protection ROI — 2025 Study
Average return on investment for click fraud protection. Includes cohort analysis, customer-segment breakdowns, and a calculator template you can adapt.
Cited by
Publications that have referenced our research and data.
TC
TechCrunch
Q1 2026 ad-tech roundup
"A growing class of click-fraud platforms is moving past IP blocklists into behavioral analysis…"
A
AdAge
CMO briefing series
"Per-vertical fraud rates that finally give CMOs a defensible baseline."
SE
Search Engine Land
PPC commentary
"Their methodology is unusually transparent for the click-fraud category."
MB
Marketing Brew
Newsletter feature
"The 18% IVT figure is now the citation we see most often in the wild."
D
Digiday
Programmatic deep-dive
"A rare instance of fraud research that names its data sources."
W
WIRED
Bot economy feature
"The clearest numbers we found on residential-proxy traffic at scale."
AW
AdWeek
Brand summit panel
"Their per-platform comparison is the one slide every advertiser remembers."
TD
The Drum
Agency interview series
"Agencies finally have a number to bring into a client conversation."
FAQ on our research
Common questions from journalists and analysts.
A flagship quarterly report (March/June/September/December) plus 1–2 special reports per year on specific themes. The quarterly is the most-cited piece.
Yes. Use the format "MyClickShield Research, [Year]" and link to the original report on /research. All published reports have permanent URLs so links don't break.
Internal peer review only — every report goes through a 4-stage review (data, methodology, language, citations) before publication. We don't claim external peer review, but the underlying data and method are open to inspection on request.
Yes, under NDA for academic and journalistic use. Email [email protected] with your affiliation and intended use. We can provide aggregated CSVs and methodology documentation; we cannot share customer-level data.
Yes, for partners and enterprise customers. We can run custom data pulls (anonymized, aggregated) on specific verticals, geographies, or platforms with 3–5 business days turnaround. Email [email protected] with your scope.
Our protected campaign network of 2M+ campaigns across customer accounts. We anonymize, aggregate, and de-identify all data per our DPA before any use in research. No single customer is ever identifiable in published numbers.
Need data for your story or vertical?
For journalists, analysts, and partners: we can run a custom data pull on your specific industry, geography, or platform. Anonymized, aggregated, and embargo-friendly. Typical turnaround 3-5 business days.
✓ NDA available·Citable methodology·No sales follow-up