Anti-Fraud in Popunder Campaigns: How to Protect Your Ad Budget

This guide for advertisers discusses how to combat fraud and build effective pop ads in the iGaming and Nutra niches. Read more to find out how to protect your budgets and increase your ROI.

Main Types of Fraud in Pop Advertising

It’s a sad fact that your ads will not always reach their target audience. Even a well-planned pop-up campaign with high-quality visuals may fail to meet expectations. Sometimes, the profitability of your banners and landing pages drops due to bots and fraudulent activity.

Main Types of Fraud in Pop Ads

Types of fraud you may encounter:

• Bots, clickers, and botnets that imitate real users.
• Farm traffic that causes inflated visits from a single source or “click farm.”
• Viruses (adware) that automatically open tabs under the user’s current one.

How Fraud Affects ROI

If bots consume traffic, your pops cannot reach the users you are targeting. Viruses also occasionally cause problems, as they prevent your tracker from assessing popunder traffic, and you get inaccurate data.

When adware forces an ad to open, the traffic is considered “junk,” and in 99% of cases, the user closes it without a second glance.

In this case, advertisers invest money and experience high bounce rates, low conversions, and unusual on-site times, CR, and CTR. As a result, their ROI ends up negative.

What Is Anti-Fraud in Popunder Campaigns?

These are the measures you can take to counter fraudulent activity. It’s absolutely essential for advertisers to attract their desired audience and pay only for impressions and clicks made by real, interested users.

Methods to Protect Advertiser Budgets

To reduce fraud and prevent it at the traffic acquisition stage, Kadam uses a built-in anti-fraud system called Kaminari. It automatically detects and blocks low-quality bot and farm traffic before it can affect campaign performance.

Kaminari analyzes incoming mobile and web traffic across key parameters — IP addresses, device types, GEOs, and behavioral signals — and prevents impressions and clicks from suspicious sources.

If needed, advertisers can also use third-party trackers for deeper analytics. However, Kadam’s core anti-fraud mechanisms already prevent most fraud scenarios at the platform level.

Thanks to Kadam’s anti-fraud systems:

• Visits from IP addresses of bot-used data centers and servers are blocked.
• You get click time analytics: if a user takes an action one second after visiting, it’s certainly a bot.

Split Tests and Campaign Auto-Optimization

Split testing will help you find poor-performing traffic sources, including fraudulent pop traffic. Just run a regular campaign as you normally would, evaluate the results, create black- and white-lists, and lists of placements to either block or scale. You can safely expand your campaigns using automation instruments.

Using Proxies and Anti-Detect Tools

We recommend using proxies and anti-detect browsers to view your ads from the perspective of a user in your target GEO.

Best Practices for Working with Mobile Traffic

Mobile traffic is King in 2025. It accounts for 60–70% of all internet usage, which is why advertisers are adapting their popunders for smartphone screens.

To make your campaigns bring in more money, we recommend creating simple creatives with a clear CTA, monitoring your page load speed (aim for 1–2 seconds), and using targeting options for iOS/Android, mobile networks, and more.

Retargeting and Conversion Growth

If you want intense lead generation, use retargeting. It will help you reach users who have already visited your site. A special code “captures” visitors and shows them your ads later. Our clients report that this strategy is indeed effective.

Betting Ads

Let’s take a closer look at how to work with these ethically ambiguous niches, where fraud is common.

Specifics of iGaming Traffic

Online casino ads may be restricted by location, which is why advertisers frequently use pre-landers. Betting traffic is tied to the schedule of sporting events, and the ads frequently feature promotions and bonuses.

In these markets, do your best to block bots. The main indicator of “human” traffic is the Reg2Dep rate, which is the conversion from registration to deposit. If a user doesn’t fund their account or place a bet, the traffic may be fraudulent.

How Advertising Networks Help Reduce Costs

At Kadam, we are ready to help you get millions of impressions per day! We offer a user-friendly dashboard and trackers, negotiate with partners, and guarantee high-quality traffic.

Our ad network managers will assist you with campaign setup and offer advice on offer selection. Furthermore, Kadam saves you money: CPC rates start at $0.0004.

Popunder: Tips for Advertisers

To invest in real clicks, see a high CR, and earn in these “hot” niches, we recommend optimizing your campaigns, using anti-fraud instruments to analyze your ads, and filtering your traffic to exclude ineffective sources.

Don’t spend thousands of dollars right away; instead, start with $50–100. Test different format combinations, set spending limits, and reach out to our team if you need help. Good luck!

👉 Want to launch popunder campaigns safely? Register at Kadam to use our advanced traffic quality control tools.

FAQ

What sets popunder apart from other ad formats?

A popunder opens as a new page under the main browser tab. Push ads (in-page push and mobile notifications) appear on the screen and require a subscription. Native ads are integrated into the website’s content.

How can I detect and stop fraud in time?

Pay attention to a spike in clicks with a 0% conversion rate, mismatched GEOs, and an abnormally high speed of clicks or registrations.

Which auto-optimization tools really work?

Rules based on an “if–then” format work well. For example: “if placement X has spent $15 and brought zero conversions, add it to the black-list.”

Why do iGaming and nutra face more fraud?

Fraudsters are drawn to these niches because the large payouts per conversion make their schemes more lucrative.

Which metrics best reflect anti-fraud effectiveness?

Control growth in your ROI, the stability of your CR and EPC (Earnings Per Click), and a decrease in your CPL and CPI. Also, monitor your Reg2Dep (for iGaming) and Approval Rate (for nutra).