Ad Tech

Doing Fraud Investigations In ¼ The Time With Data Visualization!

Fraud investigation time dropped from one hour to just 15 minutes after visualized data dashboards replaced manual Excel analysis, cutting monthly deductibles from millions of yen to near zero.

Industry
Ad Tech
Company Url
Region
Spider AF Product
¼ fraud investigation time
¼ fraud investigation time
ROAS improvement
14 days Time to first insight
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.

01

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.

02

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.

03

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

01

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.

02

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.

03

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.

04

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
¥3,000 ¥2,000 ¥1,000 ¥0 Spider AF deployed Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Is click fraud eating your ad budget right now?

Most companies don't know how much they're losing until they measure it. Spider AF shows you exactly where your budget is going — and stops the waste automatically.

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Doing Fraud Investigations In ¼ The Time With Data Visualization!

Fraud investigation time dropped from one hour to just 15 minutes after visualized data dashboards replaced manual Excel analysis, cutting monthly deductibles from millions of yen to near zero.

Purpose

  • Protect transparency in ad networks and ensure a sound ad delivery
  • Reduce the amount of man-hours and time spent on fraud investigation

Problem

  • When ad fraud occurs, it’s difficult to stop and continue projects urgently as well as accept new projects
  • Since it can not be detected and confirmed on the admin screen, sound ad delivery has become tough
  • An enormous amount of time for fraud investigation is spent on fraud that can not be detected from log data alone
  • We could not answer calls from both the demand and supply side about more scrutiny and adjustment

Result

  • Man-hours and time spent on fraud investigations were greatly reduced
  • Was able to detect fraud previously unnoticed before
  • Boosted detection of illegal mediums and able to investigate mediums in a more timely manner
  • Became an advantage when making proposals to clients


Previously could not detect ad fraud with log data alone

Q. Please tell us about when you felt the need for fraud detection before introducing SpiderAF.

Ms. Nishimura: We started feeling that this was necessary about a year ago when we were having some ad fraud running rampant in July to September of last year and had to subtract millions of units because of it. Even when claims were outside of our scope,  we didn’t have the data to prove it wasn’t so we couldn’t withdraw publications – so then it peaked.

In addition, we couldn’t clearly answer our clients when talking about fraud prevention and ultimately lead to the loss of one of our deals to a competitor.


Mr. Matsumoto: We couldn’t prevent anything before it happened and we were getting feedback from our clients – just identifying that something was ad fraud the first time took an enormous amount of time every day. There are a lot of clever methods for ad fraud out there now – there were even times when we didn’t know what kind of fraud we were looking at.

The amount of time for fraud investigations was reduced to ¼ the time through visualization


Ms. Nishimura: After we introduced SpiderAF, we started to able to see a large pattern of fraud just by looking at our admin screens where the data was graphed and scored out. So up until now, I’ve dropped the data and assembled a function in Excel… and then what would have usually taken 1 hour got shortened to 15 minutes.

After we started using SpiderAF, what would have been at most a several million yen deductibles every month became almost non-existent in some months. Not only did it reduce the number of deductible cases and costs – but we got many contracts in a single month and we're getting more orders in while also decreasing the number of loss transactions.

Catching up on system development and ad fraud for improving business


Ms. Nishimura: Since one sales staff is attached, we can ask about any unclear points right away and get a response. When we say “I want this kind of function!” since there is going to be an answer coming that’s one merit that’s not on the admin screen. Recently we’ve had a function implemented that would import the memo function in the report.


Q. We can not respond to everything, but we will respond to your requests as much as possible

Mr. Matsumoto: After introducing SpiderAF, in the first 2-3 months, Mr. Miyamoto (SpiderAF Product Manager) would occasionally come to our offices and explain to us – in a logical way – what kind of fraud has occurred. It’s because of that that our own knowledge of ad fraud has increased and made a huge difference.


Q. What are some of the most useful and frequently used features on SpiderAF?

Ms. Nishimura: We look at the waveform a lot.

Mr. Matsumoto: Because fraud forms altogether come out as impacts, we look at the types of frauds very often. Also having the batch telling us if the device is from overseas or old is extremely helpful.

Screen capture of waveforms made from periodic clicking

90% satisfaction with SpiderAF!

Q. Overall, please tell us about your future business/service plans using SpiderAF and the reasons!

Ms. Nishimura: If we include the expected value we’ll get from the shared blacklist, 90%!

In the future, we would like to build a fraud detection system that detects issues before they occur by linking up API with SpiderAF’s shared blacklist so that it could detect whether it is fraud at the time of clicking and not jump onto an advertisement.


Mr. Matsumoto: By accumulating the data of clever ad frauds, we’ll be able to operate more suitable ads and empower the soundness of the platform on the publisher's side. Not only just by the number of times installed but I would like to also see ROAS grow beyond into a product that will be ordered continuously