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AnalyticsSet up measurement

Click tracking

Add Pixalate's click tag so Analytics can detect click fraud alongside impression IVT.

Pixalate measures both impressions and clicks. It combines the signals from the two to apply impression IVT types to clicks, and uses the same signals to find click-specific fraud. To get click IVT, you add a Pixalate click tag alongside your impression tag.

Set up the click tag

  1. Pixalate supplies an additional Analytics tag (1x1) with macros for click data.
  2. Implement it as a click redirect or as a click tracker. Ask your Customer Success representative for a sample of the redirect click pixel, the dynamic redirect pixel or the click tracking pixel.
  3. Analytics counts clicks as events, alongside impressions, and adds the click data to your reports.

Sample impressions and clicks at the same rate

If you sample the traffic you send to Pixalate, use the same sampling method for impressions and clicks. Otherwise the click-through rate Pixalate sees is distorted, which can cause false classifications. For example, if you send 10% of impressions but 20% of clicks for the same publisher and creative, the measured CTR is twice the real one.

Click IVT types

These are the click-specific IVT types you’ll see in the Fraud Type dimension of your Analytics reports, grouped by what they point to. For every IVT type and its code, see Reported IVT types and the IVT Taxonomy.

CategoryIVT typeReport nameWhat it means
Suspicious usersClick FarmclickFarmTraffic from a user flagged as associated with human click farm activity
Suspicious usersDisplay Click FrauddisplayClickFraudClicks generated from the same browser or device at a statistically significant inflated rate
Suspicious usersVideo Click FraudvideoClickFraudVideo ad clicks generated from the same browser or device at a statistically significant inflated rate
Suspicious usersFast ClickerfastClickerUsers whose clicks come less than one second after their impression
Suspicious adsDuplicate ClicksduplicateClicksHigh volumes of duplicate clicks. This may point to an integration issue.
Suspicious publishersHigh CTR TraffichighCTRTraffic on domains or apps with high-risk click-through-rate behavior. See below.

How High CTR traffic is identified

High CTR flags creatives whose click-through rate is anomalous for a given publisher. Only those creatives are flagged as IVT, not all of the publisher’s traffic. It can catch user-side IVT, such as crawlers clicking one creative repeatedly, and publisher-side IVT, such as manipulating a creative to inflate its click-through rate.

  • It only applies when both impression and click tracking are enabled at the creative level.
  • Thresholds are dynamic within a range of 2% to 10%. Creatives below 2% CTR aren’t considered. Creatives above 10% are flagged. Between the two, flagging depends on the dynamic baseline detected for your traffic.

Click IVT in your reports

Once click tracking is live, add the Fraud Type dimension to a report to see click IVT by type. Alongside impression metrics (Gross, GIVT and SIVT Impressions), the report shows Gross Clicks, GIVT Clicks and SIVT Clicks for each type. See Run and customize reports and Metrics.