Self-clicking

The oldest form of click fraud needs no technology. A publisher who is paid per click simply clicks the ads on their own site, or asks staff, friends or a chat group to do it.

The rule is absolute. The AdSense Program policies say clicking your own ads for any reason is prohibited, and Google's definition of invalid traffic names publishers clicking their own ads as its first example. That includes "just testing whether the ads work" and "checking where the ad leads". Google provides other ways to test.

In search arbitrage this catches beginners and teams. A media buyer previewing a live lander and tapping a sponsored result, an office full of people on one IP address checking campaigns, or a QA routine run against production pages can all create a pattern of repeated clicks from the publisher's own network.

Because the clicks come from known accounts, devices and addresses, they are among the easiest to detect. The amounts gained are tiny and the penalty, an feed suspension, is total. Good practice: use test or preview modes, never click live ads, and tell every team member the rule on day one.

Think of it like this

It is a busker dropping coins into his own hat, except here the coins belong to someone else and the hat is being watched.