On this page
Why it matters
Some clicks on an ad show no real interest: the second click of a double click, a bot crawling result pages, a competitor or a publisher clicking to run up costs. Google reviews every click and filters the ones it judges invalid before they reach your reports and your bill.
So invalid clicks are not lost money. They are the clicks you were spared. The useful signal is the trend. A campaign whose invalid click rate jumps above its usual level is being hit by something. Part of that traffic may slip through as valid clicks you do pay for.
Invalid click rate = invalid clicks ÷ (clicks + invalid clicks)
The Clicks column already leaves the invalid ones out, so the rate is read on the total. 38 invalid clicks beside 341 charged clicks make a rate of 10.0%.
Where to find it in Google Ads
- Open Campaigns, then Columns, then Modify columns.
- Under Performance, add Invalid clicks and Invalid click rate.
- Read them by campaign over several months, to learn each campaign's usual level.
- In Billing, the transactions list shows any credit for invalid activity Google found after the clicks were charged.
An example
A locksmith's Search campaign usually shows an invalid click rate near 4%. One week it reads 13.0%: 186 invalid clicks beside 1,240 charged ones. The 186 cost nothing. The charged clicks are the worry: the same week, clicks from one district doubled with no calls behind them.
The manager checks the search terms and devices for that district, excludes the IP addresses that repeat in the site's server logs, and sends Google the dates and figures. Two weeks later the rate is back near its usual level, and a small credit for invalid activity shows in billing.
In Optizads
The Invalid clicks report template shows clicks, invalid clicks and invalid click rate for each campaign, as Google reports them, under the account's clicks, impressions, CTR and spend. Oppy can draw the same table in a conversation when you ask for it. Optizads does not detect click fraud on its own or claim credits from Google.
Common mistakes
- Reading a high invalid click rate as money lost: invalid clicks are not charged.
- Assuming every bad click gets filtered. A tap on an ad inside a game app can look human and be charged, and a placement exclusion is the way to stop it.
- Blocking IP addresses on a hunch: a campaign takes at most 500, and a shared office or mobile address can shut out real customers.
Checks that look at it
The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.
Related terms
- Placement: A website, app or YouTube channel where a Display or Video ad showed.
- Click-through rate (CTR): Clicks divided by impressions: the share of people who saw an ad and clicked it.
- Display Network: Websites and apps where Google shows image and text ads.
- Cost per click (CPC): What you pay when someone clicks an ad.