What’s new in the world of invalid clicks

AdWords is a product that’s constantly evolving. To help keep you up-to-date, we like to check-in with individual product teams to see what they’re up to. This time around, I got an update from the Click Quality team, a group of folks dedicated to protecting advertisers from invalid clicks and click fraud. Here’s what I learned:

There’s no “silver bullet” when combating invalid clicks and click fraud, so the team is continuously improving their techniques. For obvious reasons, the team couldn’t go into detail about every initiative they’re working on, but they were able to share some of their more recent efforts.

Recent product launches
In June, the team launched Internet Protocol (IP) address exclusion. IP address exclusion allows advertisers to exclude up to 20 IP addresses, or ranges of addresses, where advertisers don’t want their ads to appear. It's important to note that some large Internet Service Providers (ISPs) use IP address ranges for all their users. If you’re thinking of using IP exclusion, be sure you’ve carefully selected the IP addresses you'd like to exclude so you don't end up blocking a large amount of relevant and potentially profitable traffic.

The team also continues to develop new filters and signals (these are some of the top secret things they couldn't go into too much detail on) used to detect invalid clicks. Constantly updating and improving our systems enable them to stay ahead of some very sophisticated fraudsters.

Increased transparency
In addition to product enhancements and features, the Click Quality team has been working to provide more information about what Google does to detect invalid clicks and protect advertisers from click fraud. Earlier this year, the team disclosed the invalid click metrics across the Google network here on the Inside AdWords blog. That post was soon followed up by a post on how to request a click quality investigation and a paper on click fraud botnets.

In May, the Click Quality team held the first-ever Invalid Clicks Advertiser Forum at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. The forum was a half-day event offering presentations from Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety, a Q&A session with the click quality engineering team, and a review of a few invalid clicks case studies presented by the click quality investigation team. The event was a great way for advertisers to express their concerns directly to the team and also get their questions answered by the team's experts. Future forums in different cities are in the planning stages, so stay tuned.

Shuman has also been racking up the frequent flier miles by speaking with advertisers at events in the US, Canada and Europe. So far this year, Shuman presented at Search Engine Strategies conferences in New York, Toronto, and London, as well as at Search Insider Summit (Bonita Springs, FL) and Search Marketing World (Dublin, Ireland). If you're planning on attending Search Engine Strategies San Jose in August, be sure to drop in on the "Search Engines On Click Fraud" session where Shuman is scheduled as a speaker.

Well, sounds like the team's been keeping themselves pretty busy these days. While reviewing some of the team's past efforts, I found a very helpful FAQ in the AdWords Help Center that lists some of the things advertisers can do to monitor or prevent invalid clicks on ads. Advertisers can also use the following tools and features to monitor and control the traffic they receive from their AdWords ads:

1. Auto-tagging: This feature that allows AdWords advertisers to easily see how their keywords are performing from click to conversion. Auto-tagging is often used by Google Analytics users, but you do not have to use Google Analytics to use auto-tagging.
   
   
2. Site exclusion: This tool can be used to prevent ads from appearing on certain Google content network websites that advertisers don't feel are appropriate for their ads. Advertisers can get an idea of where their ads are showing by running a Placement Performance report.
   
   
3. Invalid clicks reporting: This advanced reporting option allows advertisers to review the number and percentage of clicks determined to be invalid and automatically filtered out by the AdWords system. This data is available in Campaign Performance and Account Performance reports by including the "Invalid Clicks" and "Invalid Clicks Rate" advanced options.

I hope this review of the Click Quality team's recent work has provided some insight into the efforts that go on everyday to improve and maintain the AdWords system. Stay tuned to the Inside AdWords blog for future AdWords product team updates.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew