How to Fight Fake Leads in Facebook Advertising Campaigns

Fake leads from Facebook ads hinder business development—verifying them consumes time for the team and budgets for the company. Meanwhile, Facebook itself believes it is learning from target users.

To reduce the number of fake leads on Facebook and optimize the traffic to the website, we have explored strategies and solutions that businesses can implement on their own resources and with the help of tools provided by Facebook.

Why Facebook Ads May Generate Fake Leads

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Based on the experience of Promodo specialists, fake Facebook leads from accounts pretending to be girls are the most common. Typically, they are easy to identify, as their age is usually under 25; the account may have a photo and a name. To make Facebook perceive them as real profiles, the individuals behind these accounts engage in various activities such as joining groups, interacting with posts, leaving reviews, and filling out forms.

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Processing all forms through CRM or additional phone calls, the client understands that no one with the provided phone number actually filled out the form. For businesses, this is critical as processing each request takes time. Facebook does not distinguish between "correct" or "incorrect" forms—just having the user's contact information is enough for it to count as a successful action. Businesses cannot cancel such requests, so the system essentially learns from fake users and optimizes campaigns for low-quality traffic.

Moreover, to increase their traffic, spam sites often display ads from the Facebook Audience Network. By incentivizing more clicks, they pay individuals behind bot accounts, who then fill out forms and create fake requests.

How Advertisers Can Combat Fake Leads from Facebook Ads

Eliminating fake leads from advertising completely is challenging, as there is no one-size-fits-all method that works perfectly. It is necessary to analyze the problem and understand which solution and course of action would be suitable for your specific case. This could involve additional solutions on the business website, the use of tools provided by Facebook (manual ad placements and disabling Audience Network), or adjusting the settings of the advertising campaign itself. Let's delve into them in more detail.

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Start with Website Changes

Additional settings can significantly help in combating fake leads. The most effective tools include:

• Verification Additions (confirmation by phone/email): Adding verification steps, such as confirming with a phone number or email, can enhance the authenticity of leads.
• Adding Captcha: Incorporating captcha challenges can help filter out automated or fake submissions by requiring users to complete a visual or interactive task to prove they are human.

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Without the ability to confirm their identity, a bot will be unable to submit a request, allowing the business to reject fake leads at the outset. Additionally, effective methods include integrating services on the website that can block IPs from which irrelevant traffic originates.

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Adjustments on Facebook

Adding additional verification to an advertising campaign is impossible, so it is necessary to turn to additional tools that can reduce the number of fake leads.

Exclude Certain Ad Placements

When creating an advertising campaign, you can eliminate placements where fake leads frequently appear.

This particularly applies to the Audience Network, which displays ads on third-party websites—advertisers have fewer tools to control lead quality and traffic metrics. Spam sites may intentionally use Audience Network ads to train their bots or generate traffic to their resources.

Monitor Lead Quality

Using Lead Center in Business Suite, you can track leads and analyze overall statistics. For example, identify patterned submissions, mark bot leads as low quality, or even block or remove accounts from which they originate.

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Segment your Audience

By analyzing which audience brings in the most fake leads, you can exclude it from the advertising campaign. This advice may not be suitable for all businesses, but if you can experiment without negative consequences by reducing the target audience of the campaign—try it and see if the number of non-target leads decreases.

Utilize Facebook's Conversion API Tool

It allows advertisers to transmit event and conversion data directly from their CRM system to Facebook. This can include information about:

• Purchases
• Registrations
• Form submissions (callback, information request, etc.)
• Page views and interaction with content
• Actions in applications and on the website.
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These and other data are transmitted to Facebook via HTTPS requests. Since the data is included in each request and transmitted as a URL, Facebook can track conversions and optimize advertising campaigns on its platform.

If a bot generates fake leads, the Conversion API will not display it as a genuine conversion. Consequently, advertisers can avoid situations where fake leads are generated by third-party spam sites.

Additionally, the tool can be used to block IP addresses from which non-targeted requests are coming, as the Conversion API identifies devices and addresses.

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Is it Possible to Eliminate Facebook Ads Fake Leads Permanently?

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It all depends on the specificities of the business and its technical capabilities. For some, website verification proves helpful—by adding it, a company can effectively eliminate bot-generated requests. If this option is not feasible for a company, consideration should be given to mechanical tools such as blocking IP addresses or bots in the Lead Center. To track the new actions of fake accounts, specialists need to consistently analyze advertising campaigns and manually take actions that reduce the number of fake leads.

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