2-second click-to-install times from one sub-publisher. Is this click injection?
One Android sub-publisher shows click-to-install times of a couple of seconds and almost no revenue. Is this what click injection looks like?
Answer from the Linkrunner team
It could be. Click injection comes from a malicious app already on an Android device. It listens for a new app being installed and fires a fake ad click just before that app's first open, so the fraud source takes last-click credit for an install it did not drive. iOS is largely insulated because it has no broadcast-based install referrer. The clearest signal is an implausibly short click-to-install time concentrated on one network or sub-publisher, often with near-zero revenue and D7 retention. Pull P5, P10 and P50 click-to-install times by sub-publisher for the last 30 days and look for outliers. To block it, read the signed Google Play Install Referrer API rather than the old broadcast intent, and use Meta Install Referrer for Meta traffic. Watch for false positives: WhatsApp or referral links opened by people who already have the app also open in seconds. Real timing data: https://linkrunner.io/blog/click-to-install-timing-benchmarks-android-ios-2026
More on this: linkrunner.io/blog/click-injection-detect-and-block