[logsr]

for ad networks and social media platforms that provide monetization the click fraud is direct.

there is also a massive industry of fake accounts and fake engagement for social media and SEO (google). bots are designed to create plausibly real engagement, which is used to trick ranking algorithms into boosting content. these bots have to be real enough to bypass platform detection. clicking through on ads is a way of incentivizing platforms not to shut them down and possibly improving the ranking results, working with the theory that platforms give stronger weight to engagement signals from clients that generate more revenue.