{"id":6915,"date":"2026-10-20T21:39:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/glossary\/click-flooding\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T21:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T14:39:27","slug":"click-flooding","status":"publish","type":"mona_glossary","link":"https:\/\/adtek.agency\/en\/glossary\/click-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Click flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click flooding (also called click spamming) is a form of attribution fraud in app advertising: the fraudster sends huge numbers of fake clicks tied to the devices of many people, then waits for some of them to install the app on their own, so the fake click becomes the “last click” and takes credit for the install. It is a type of click fraud<\/a> that targets last-click attribution.<\/p>\n

What is click flooding?<\/h2>\n

Most MMPs credit an install to the last click inside the attribution window. At Adjust, the default window for clicks matched by device ID is 7 days, and it can be set anywhere from 1 to 30 days (Adjust Help Center, Attribution windows, accessed October 2026<\/a>). Fraudsters exploit exactly this. They send clicks for as many devices as possible, and whenever one of those devices installs the app within the 7 days, the fraudulent source gets paid.<\/p>\n

Adjust describes the goal of click spam as “poaching” installs from organic users, people who would have downloaded the app anyway. The clicks can come from impressions reported as clicks, from servers sending lists of artificial clicks, or from an app that loads and clicks hidden ads while running in the background (Adjust Help Center, Distribution Modeling, accessed October 2026<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Why click flooding is hard to spot<\/h2>\n

The users whose installs are hijacked are real. They open the app, retain well, and sometimes buy, so the fraudulent source looks like a good channel. The damage shows up elsewhere: you pay for organic installs<\/a>, the organic number in your reports drops, and more budget flows to a channel that brings in no new users.<\/p>\n

Warning signs<\/h2>\n

The clearest signal is click-to-install time (CTIT<\/a>). Adjust says more than 85% of installs from legitimate traffic happen within the first hour after the click. With click spam, the user never clicked an ad, so installs are spread evenly across the attribution window. If most of a source’s conversions happen 60 minutes or more after the click, Adjust starts rejecting attribution for that click and passes the install to the next valid source or to organic (Adjust, Distribution Modeling).<\/p>\n

A few more signs:<\/p>\n