- Click fraud comes from individuals, click farms, bots, and websites that pay for clicks. It drains budget and distorts the data Smart Bidding learns from.
- Google filters most invalid clicks in real time and issues credits for cases it detects later. The invalid activity credits report shows these credits for Search and Performance Max campaigns.
- You can exclude up to 500 IP addresses per campaign. For Performance Max, exclusions are only possible at the account level.
- We monitor clicks, score them on dozens of signals, and add suspicious IP addresses to the exclusion list.
For many businesses, pay-per-click advertising is the most important channel for winning new customers. Wherever that much budget flows, fraud follows: clicks that reflect no genuine interest and exist only to generate costs, whether from competitors, click farms, or automated programs.
The damage goes beyond the wasted clicks. Smart Bidding learns from your account data. When fraudulent clicks get in, Google optimizes against a distorted picture. This article explains how click fraud works, what Google does about it, and how we add an extra layer of protection to our clients' accounts.
Click fraud drains budget without bringing in customers
Click fraud is the act of clicking a paid ad with fraudulent intent. The aim is to exhaust a competitor's ad budget, cut their reach, or, as a website owner, earn money from ad clicks.
A whole industry specializing in pay-per-click ads has grown up around click fraud.
Click fraud relies on both people and machines
Fraudulent clicks come from either real people or automated systems.
Individuals clicking ads on purpose
The simplest method: competitors, employees, friends, or family repeatedly click a company's ads. It takes effort for the perpetrators, but with high costs per click it quickly gets expensive for the advertiser.
Click farms operate at scale
Click farms employ people to click ads, post comments, or hand out likes for their clients all day. Many of these services openly advertise boosting likes and followers on social media. But the same methods can be used to defraud advertisers, often combined with malware and sophisticated masking techniques.
Bots and botnets generate clicks automatically
Bots, or click robots, are faster still. They behave like human users and click on ads automatically via script. When bots are installed undetected on other people's computers and servers, they form botnets. The clicks then come from many different IP addresses and devices, which makes them harder to detect.
Websites pay users for clicks
Pay-to-click websites pay their visitors to click on ads. These clicks reflect no interest in the offer but still cost money, particularly for ads on the Display Network and partner sites. For advertisers, that means wasted budget and a lower conversion rate.
Google filters most invalid clicks automatically
Google doesn't use the term click fraud; it refers to invalid clicks and invalid activity. This covers all clicks and interactions that reflect no genuine user interest, including:
- clicks intended to inflate your advertising costs or generate revenue for a website owner,
- clicks from automated clicking tools, robots, or other deceptive software,
- accidental or duplicate clicks with no value to you, such as the second click of a double-click.
Most of Google's safeguards work in real time, before a click is billed. But Google keeps reviewing interactions after the billing period ends. If it detects invalid activity only after invoicing, it credits the affected costs where possible. These invalid activity credits appear in your billing and transaction history.
A dedicated report in the report editor shows credits by campaign and network, including credited clicks, interactions, and amounts. It's available for Search and Performance Max campaigns. You can also view costs, cost per click, and conversion rate there with the credits factored out.
Google investigations only pay off with solid evidence
If you suspect Google has missed invalid clicks, you can request an investigation through the click quality form. Typical triggers include an unusually high number of clicks with no results, low-quality inquiries, clicks from outside your target area, or a sudden spike in costs.
An investigation only stands a chance if you provide concrete evidence: the affected time periods, IP addresses, and click patterns. That's why it pays to monitor clicks yourself rather than relying solely on Google's filters.
We monitor every click and block fraudulent sources
For our clients, we add an extra layer of click fraud protection. It works in four steps.
We monitor your ads
We track clicks on your Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns, looking at signals such as IP address and range, device, VPN use, and on-site behavior.
We analyze your traffic for fraud
Every click is scored on dozens of signals and ends up classified as either normal or fraudulent.
We block clicks from fraudulent sources
For campaigns that support IP exclusions, we add detected suspicious addresses to the exclusion list. Your ads are then no longer shown to these addresses.
We keep the exclusion list up to date
Google Ads allows up to 500 excluded IP addresses per campaign. You can also exclude address ranges by replacing the last digits with an asterisk. For Performance Max and video campaigns, IP exclusions are only possible at the account level. Because space is limited, we prioritize: the list holds the addresses that pose the greatest risk.
Conclusion: Clean clicks are the basis for sound decisions
Click fraud affects almost every industry, especially where clicks are expensive and local competitors are chasing the same customers. Google catches much of it automatically and credits cases it detects later.
What slips through costs you twice: once in budget for the click, and again in the quality of the data Smart Bidding learns from. Monitoring clicks yourself and consistently excluding suspicious sources protects both, and gives you the evidence to request a credit from Google.
