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The short answer
Phone apps are the biggest source of accidental Display clicks: a tap inside a game is not interest. Oppy lists the apps and app categories that took money recently, on accounts whose campaigns exclude no app.
Why it matters
It is the most repeated piece of advice about Display and the one most often not taken. The setting is buried, and the report that shows the cost is the one nobody opens. Games and children's apps sit at the top of the list on almost every account that has not excluded them.
The clicks look like ordinary traffic in the campaign totals. They only show up as a problem when someone opens the placement report and sees which apps the money went to.
How Oppy decides
The check only applies when the account runs Display, video or Demand Gen and its exclusions could be read.
It reads the app exclusions set on each campaign, at account level, and in the shared exclusion lists your live campaigns use.
Checks that weigh money or clicks judge what they find on your own account's numbers, not on one figure applied to every account, so what counts as a problem on a small account is not the same on a large one. Checks on settings read how the account is set up.
When there is too little to go on, the check says so instead of guessing. A finding always comes with the rows behind it, so you can read the evidence before you decide.
| This check | |
|---|---|
| Step of the audit | Spend |
| What it reads | Where Display and video ads ran |
| Needs trustworthy conversions | No. It does not wait for the tracking step. |
| What happens next | Reported in the audit with the rows behind it. The decision stays with you. |
Check it yourself in Google Ads
- In Google Ads, open Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then When and where ads showed, on the Where ads showed tab, for the last 30 days.
- Filter or sort by placement type to find mobile applications.
- Sort by cost and note the apps that spent with no conversion.
- Open Audiences, keywords and content, then Content, then Exclusions, and check whether any app or app category is excluded.
What to do about it
Exclude the app categories you never meant to buy, such as games, at account level or in a shared exclusion list. Then exclude the single apps at the top of the cost list that returned nothing.
Keep the apps that converted, and check them again next month. The point is to stop paying for taps, not to leave apps you chose.
Terms on this page
Other checks in this area
The checks next to this one in Wasted spend, each with its own page.