Technology

Ateam’s Approach to Minimizing Invalid Clicks and Saving Resources

After integrating Spider AF, Ateam recovered 2% of their ad spend through refunds across multiple ad networks, freeing their team from resource-draining manual fraud detection.

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https://www.a-tm.co.jp/en/

Industry

Technology

Company Url

https://www.a-tm.co.jp/en/

Region

Nagoya, Japan

Spider AF Product

2% ad spend refunded

3× ROAS improvement

14 days Time to first insight

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The Challenge

Budget disappearing with nothing to show for it

MOTA's performance team noticed their cost-per-install was rising sharply — but installs weren't converting to active users. Something was eating their budget.

Google Ads campaigns showing high install volume with near-zero in-app activity
Meta click-through rates inflated by what appeared to be bot traffic
Internal attribution data was inconsistent — impossible to identify the source
Monthly ad spend growing without corresponding business results
Manual IP blocking too slow and too narrow to make a meaningful impact

Why Spider AF

The only platform built specifically for ad fraud detection

MOTA needed more than a generic analytics tool. They needed a system that understood how click fraud works in performance marketing — and could stop it in real time.

Real-time invalid traffic detection

Spider AF monitors every click and impression in real time, flagging bot traffic, click farms, and abnormal patterns the moment they appear — before they drain more budget.

Direct Google & Meta integration

Native integrations with both platforms allow Spider AF to feed exclusion lists back automatically — no manual uploads, no lag between detection and action.

Transparent fraud reporting

Detailed dashboards give MOTA's team clear evidence of exactly what was fraudulent, how much it cost, and proof of savings — making it easy to justify the ROI internally.

The Approach

From blind spots to full visibility in four steps

Connect & audit

MOTA connected their Google Ads and Meta accounts to Spider AF in under 30 minutes. Spider AF immediately began pulling historical click data to establish a baseline — surfacing patterns that had gone unnoticed for months.

Identify fraud sources

The platform identified three distinct fraud vectors: click farms targeting their branded keywords on Google, bot-generated clicks on Meta video ads, and a network of spoofed apps generating fraudulent impressions.

Deploy exclusion rules

Spider AF automatically pushed IP exclusion lists and audience exclusions to both platforms. Rules were updated daily, keeping pace with evolving fraud patterns without requiring manual intervention from the MOTA team.

Monitor & optimise

With clean traffic data flowing in for the first time, MOTA's team could make genuine optimisation decisions. Bid strategies, audience targeting, and creative allocation all improved — because the underlying data was finally trustworthy.

The Results

Campaign performance before & after Spider AF

Valid installs rose while overall spend held steady — a direct result of eliminating fraudulent traffic from the media mix.

Monthly cost-per-install trend (JPY)

Before Spider AF After Spider AF

Pre-deployment average: ¥2,840 / install Post-deployment average: ¥940 / install

"We knew something was wrong, but we had no way to prove it. Spider AF gave us the evidence we needed — and then fixed the problem automatically."

Takeshi Yamamoto

Head of Performance Marketing, MOTA

The Outcome

Clean data. Real results. Confidence restored.

Six months after deployment, MOTA's performance marketing operates on a foundation of trusted data — and their results speak for themselves.

With invalid traffic eliminated, MOTA reallocated ¥2.4 million in previously wasted budget to high-performing placements, tripled their ROAS on Google Ads, and built the internal case to double their digital ad investment in the following fiscal year.

Frequently Asked

Questions about Spider AF for performance marketing

How quickly can Spider AF detect click fraud after integration?

Spider AF begins flagging suspicious patterns within hours of connecting your ad accounts. Most customers see their first actionable fraud report within 24–48 hours, and automated exclusion rules take effect immediately once confirmed.

Does Spider AF work with both Google Ads and Meta Ads simultaneously?

Yes. Spider AF has native integrations with Google Ads, Meta Ads, and many other major ad platforms. Exclusion lists and audience blocks can be pushed to all connected platforms simultaneously from a single dashboard.

Will blocking fraudulent traffic reduce our reported impression/click volume?

Yes — and that's the point. Raw numbers will decrease, but your real metrics (genuine installs, conversions, ROAS) will improve because your budget is now reaching actual humans. Spider AF's reporting helps you explain this shift to stakeholders clearly.

Can we use Spider AF for app install campaigns specifically?

Absolutely. Spider AF is particularly effective for app install campaigns, where fraudulent traffic patterns (such as install farms and click injections) are most prevalent. The platform includes dedicated detection models tuned for mobile app marketing.

Is there a minimum spend required to benefit from Spider AF?

There's no hard minimum, but customers typically see the strongest ROI when spending ¥500,000 or more per month on digital advertising. Even at lower budgets, the data-quality improvements can meaningfully change optimisation decisions.

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Ateam’s Approach to Minimizing Invalid Clicks and Saving Resources

February 20, 2023

Ateam’s Approach to Minimizing Invalid Clicks and Saving Resources

After integrating Spider AF, Ateam recovered 2% of their ad spend through refunds across multiple ad networks, freeing their team from resource-draining manual fraud detection.

Table of Contents

Overview

Ateam is a technology company that designs, develops, and operates games, applications, and an e-commerce site focused on connecting people. Their media platforms have gained a loyal following and they have recently implemented advertising operations to attract more users and help advertisers reach their target audiences.

We recently interviewed Mr. Takahiro Hori of Ateam’s Ad Marketing Division to discuss the challenges they encountered with ad fraud and the benefits of integrating Spider AF into their existing system.

Challenges

Efficient ad operations remained a perpetual challenge for Ateam. They have experienced bots and excessive traffic from identical users on their PPC ads in the past, and these caused a temporary spike in cost-per-click (CPC), leading to the suspension of their ad campaigns.

After identifying the challenges with ad fraud, Ateam allocated development resources from their internal engineering team towards access analysis and other measures but felt it was a cat-and-mouse game.

In addition, Ateam tried a different ad fraud solution, but it eventually turned out to be very cost-ineffective due to its high cost and limited media coverage.

Solution

As the base fee for other ad fraud prevention tools was too high, Ateam found it a challenge to use them on multiple sites due to domain-based charges. Aside from Spider AF’s advanced technology and experienced support team, the major deciding factor that led Ateam to switch to Spider AF is its click-based billing system and multiple domain support.

Why Spider AF

Ateam found Spider AF to be a good fit thanks to its local (Japanese) support offering. Spider AF made the process of detecting and reporting ad fraud efficient and simplified refund requests from ad networks.

After switching to Spider AF, Ateam successfully refunded 2% of their ad spend on multiple ad networks.

Recommendation

“At Ateam, we believe companies spending more than $15,000 per month can easily recognize the benefits of integrating an ad fraud prevention tool. As marketers, our tasks are not limited to just ad operations but also strategic planning, optimizations, and much more. With limited time on our hands, we prioritize what matters the most.

Thinking about how ad fraud is exhausting our budget reduces productivity, and using internal resources to manually detect ad fraud adds up to additional man-hours. Integrating Spider AF helped us regain time and resources, and we are now able to execute marketing campaigns without worrying about noise caused by ad fraud.

From that perspective, we feel that the effect of integrating ad fraud solutions goes beyond just numbers and is now able to use our time more effectively.”