Invalid clicks on Google ads has become one of a massive issue. It is a major threat to publishers and advertisers as it hinders amazing opportunities of generating income. Also, it costs advertisers millions of
Invalid clicks on Google ads has become one of a massive issue. It is a major threat to publishers and advertisers as it hinders amazing opportunities of generating income. Also, it costs advertisers millions of dollars in lost revenue every year. Therefore filtering invalid clicks in Google Ads is essential to avoid any damages.
To do this, you can use Google to filter as many invalid clicks as possible. Also, you can take things into your own hands by using a 3rd party click fraud protection. To understand the filtering process, I’ll outline the points to help filter invalid clicks so you can obtain successful results.
What is invalid click activity?
Invalid click activity comprises of any clicks and impressions that may unauthentically inflate an advertiser’s expenses or earnings of the publisher. Usually, invalid clicks involve manual clicks by people either accidentally or intentionally, accidental double clicks, impressions that are designed to reduce your click through rate as well as automated clicks by bots. In short, there are different forms involved when comes to invalid click activity.
Competitors and fraud rings are usually the most common culprits of invalid clicks. Competitors hire a group of people to click on links try to drain the budget of competitive business. On the other hand, fraud rings target big companies. Their mission is to obtain a huge amount of money. Also as aforementioned, it’s not all invalid clicks that are fraudulent especially accidental clicks. So in simple terms, invalid click activity is the amount of unusual clicks that happened.
How do I see invalid clicks in Google ads?
When setting up your Google Ads campaigns the good aspect is that you have the choice to modify your data views. The preselected option is ‘People in, or who show interest in your target locations’ (recommended). Even though this is the highly recommended setting, without somewhat of adjustment you might be positioning yourself open to a bit of PPC violation.
In order to adjust the settings of the campaign and filtering some of the invalid click activity, you can simply change the recommended settings to ‘People in your targeted locations. Then the next step is to click on ‘Campaigns’ where you’ll see 3 columns. Click on ‘modify columns’, in this way you’ll be able to add a column to view ‘invalid click rates’ as well as ‘invalid clicks’. When these have been well added, you will now be able to take a brief on which campaigns are affected by invalid clicks.
Ways to filter invalid Clicks in Google Ads
As you now understand what exactly invalid click and how do you see it, you also need to know tactics of filtering them in order to reap the benefits. Here are a few common ways you can implement.
● Monitor Your Ads
The first thing to do in order to filter invalid clicks is to use Google Analytics or alternate with similar tools. Google Analytics is one of the easiest to use tools. It can tell you the amount of traffic that you’re getting to your website. And of course, you don’t need to pay a dime to use it. Additionally, there are some important steps to filter out invalid clicks by monitoring your ads. Let’s catch them in the following portion.
You need to break down your traffic into segments. In this way, it will be much easier for you to keep track of where it’s coming from. To segment your traffic, you can simply use custom channels, Ads units, and URL channels. Another important to the thing you mustn’t do is to click your own ads no matter how interested you are. This is prohibited and Google can flag your account. Therefore make sure to educate your team not to click on them either.
● Let Google handle the job
To identify invalid clicks, Google uses real time system that analyses and filters every click your ads receive. But no one knows how the system operates. Most assume that it considers a number of factors when determining whether a click is genuine or not. Some of the factors include the time, IP address, or device ID of the user.
Furthermore, Google has established its own invalid click investigator which enables users to report any suspicious clicks to Google. The investigator will show information and questions, then if they need more data for their investigation, Google will directly email you.
● Use click fraud prevention solutions
Google has a lot of information to work with when it comes to filtering invalid clicks. Thus you need to alternate with 3rd party click fraud protection. The responsibility of click fraud prevention solutions is to take care of invalid traffic while you focus on your own tasks. Invalid traffic is caught before it causes any damage. They also ensure to pre filter any suspicious source which brings invalid clicks.
When choosing an anti click fraud software, make sure to understand what they are providing you with. Some reliable software such as Clixtell comes with amazing features. They are able to detect the actual device where exactly the fraudulent clicks are coming from.
To Wrap Up
As aforementioned, invalid clicks can happen due to various reasons from accidental clicks, automated robots as well as suspicious activity. In order to get rid of this activity, ensure to add the invalid clicks column within your Adwords. This will allow you to check the exact number as well as the percentage of invalid clicks to each and every campaign.
The algorithms of Google deal with each suspicious activity as it pops up such as when a competitor is deliberately trying to drain your budget. You can even take an advantage of using invalid click software to tackle the issue. And at the end of the day, you’ll have a higher chance of reaching real humans and bringing in new sales. I hope this guide will help you in every step, also feel free to share it with your friends who may need this detailed information.