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Facebook Ads Setup

Guide to protecting your Facebook Ads budget from click fraud

Facebook Limitations

Facebook Ads does not support IP blocking like Google Ads. However, you can use NS Ads Xperts™ to analyze traffic and apply effective anti-fraud measures.

How NS Ads Xperts™ Helps

The NS Ads Xperts™ system detects click fraud by analyzing:

  • IP Patterns: Detect fake IPs, fake subnets, and abnormal behavior
  • Device Fingerprinting: Identify virtual devices, emulators, bots
  • Time Analysis: Analyze click times (bot farms usually operate 2-5 AM)
  • Behavior Tracking: Track on-site behavior (bounce rate, time on page, click patterns)
  • Traffic Source: Differentiate traffic from Facebook Ads, organic, direct, referral

Anti-Fraud Strategy on Facebook

Since you cannot block IPs directly on Facebook, we combine data analysis from NS Ads Xperts™ with Facebook Ads optimization features:

Method 1: Analyze & Block Placements

Step 1: Analyze Data from NS Ads Xperts™

  1. Login to NS Ads Xperts™ Dashboard
  2. View Blocked IPs to analyze blocked IPs coming from Facebook Ads
  3. Check Click Patterns: click times, fraud rate by hour
  4. Analyze Device Types: fake devices, emulators
  5. View Behavior Data: bounce rate, time on page, click speed
  6. Identify common patterns: country, ISP, subnet patterns

Example: If you detect 80% of fraud traffic coming from Audience Network between 2-4 AM → Turn off this placement and schedule ads from 6 AM.

Step 2: Optimize Placements

In Facebook Ads Manager:

  1. Go to Ad Set Settings
  2. In "Placements", select "Manual Placements"
  3. Uncheck placements with high fraud rates:
  • ❌ Audience Network: Highest fraud rate (30-50%)
  • ❌ Right Column: Low visibility, mostly bot clicks
  • ❌ Instant Articles: Low engagement, quick clicks
  • ✅ Facebook Feed: Safest placement
  • ✅ Instagram Feed: Lower fraud rate
  • ⚠️ Stories: Medium risk, requires monitoring

Recommendation

Run only Facebook Feed + Instagram Feed. Completely disable Audience Network to avoid 90% of click fraud.

Method 2: Tight Geo-Targeting

Location Targeting

In Ad Set Settings:

  1. In "Locations", select "People living in this location" (instead of "People in or recently in")
  2. If targeting Vietnam: Select specific provinces/cities instead of "Vietnam"
  3. Exclude countries with high fraud rates: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia
  4. Use Radius Targeting for local businesses (5-10km)

Method 3: Audience Optimization

Use Custom Audiences

  • Website Custom Audience: Retarget users who visited your website (already verified as real)
  • Engagement Custom Audience: People who interacted with your Page/Posts
  • Lookalike Audiences: Based on customer list, lower fraud rate
  • Exclude Bot Behaviors: Create audiences from blocked IPs and exclude them from campaigns

Method 4: Ad Scheduling

Run Ads at Safe Hours

Based on time analysis from NS Ads Xperts™, bot farms usually operate 2-5 AM. Turn off ads in this period:

  1. Go to Ad Set Settings
  2. Enable "Run ads on a schedule"
  3. Set run time: 6 AM - 11 PM (local time)
  4. Turn off ads at night to avoid bot traffic

Method 5: Monitor Campaign Performance

Key Metrics to Monitor

Compare data between Facebook Ads Manager and NS Ads Xperts™:

  • Click Discrepancy: If Facebook reports 1000 clicks but NS Ads Xperts™ only sees 600 → 40% fraud
  • Bounce Rate: > 80% = a lot of bot traffic
  • Time on Page: < 5s on average = suspicious
  • Conversion Rate: < 0.5% = poor traffic quality
  • Cost per Result: Sudden spike = possible fraud attack

Method 6: Exclude IPs via Facebook Pixel (Advanced)

How It Works

Facebook Pixel cannot block IPs directly, but you can create Custom Audiences based on user behavior:

  1. NS Ads Xperts™ tracks behavior: When a visitor lands on your website, NS Ads Xperts™ analyzes device, IP, and behavior
  2. Send a custom event to Pixel: If fraud is detected, fire the FraudDetected event through Facebook Pixel
  3. Create Custom Audience: In Facebook Ads Manager, create an audience from users who triggered the FraudDetected event
  4. Exclude from campaigns: Add this audience to Exclusions of all campaigns

Code example: fbq('track', 'FraudDetected', {ip_hash: 'xxx', reason: 'suspicious_behavior'});

Limitations of This Method

  • Cannot block IPs: Facebook does not allow blocking by IP, only by Facebook User ID
  • Requires Facebook login: User must be logged into Facebook to have a User ID to exclude
  • Delay: Audience needs 1-2 hours to propagate, not real-time like Google Ads
  • Bot farms use many accounts: Each new Facebook account is a new User ID that cannot be blocked by previous exclusions
  • Private browsing: Users in incognito mode + logged out of Facebook cannot be tracked by User ID

Conclusion: This method is only 20-30% effective due to these limitations. It should be combined with other methods (placements, geo-targeting, ad scheduling) to achieve the best results.

More Effective Methods

Instead of trying to exclude IPs (not feasible on Facebook), focus on:

  • Lookalike Audiences: Built from customer list or converters → Fraud rate < 5%
  • Engagement Audiences: Retarget users who engaged with your Page/Posts → Real users
  • Website Custom Audiences: Retarget visitors who stayed ≥ 30s → Already verified by NS Ads Xperts™
  • Disable Audience Network: Instantly reduce fraud by 40-50%

Cost Comparison

Before vs After Applying

Metric Before After Improvement
Click-through Rate 2.5% 2.8% +12%
Conversion Rate 0.8% 1.4% +75%
Cost per Click 3,000đ 3,500đ +17%
Cost per Conversion 500,000đ 300,000đ -40%

* A slight CPC increase is normal because cheap bot clicks are blocked. However, conversion rate and ROI improve significantly.

Optimization Checklist

  • ☑️ Setup NS Ads Xperts™ tracking on your website
  • ☑️ Analyze fraud patterns from the Dashboard
  • ☑️ Disable Audience Network placements
  • ☑️ Run only Facebook Feed + Instagram Feed
  • ☑️ Use tight geo-targeting (by province/city)
  • ☑️ Ad scheduling: Turn off ads from 2-5 AM
  • ☑️ Use Lookalike/Engagement Audiences instead of pure cold traffic
  • ☑️ Monitor discrepancies between Facebook and NS Ads Xperts™

Next Steps