Google Ads Click Fraud: How to Stop Bots From Eating Your Budget (2024)

It is the dark side of PPC. You pay $50 for a click. The user lands on your site and leaves in 0 seconds. Was it a mistake? Was it a competitor? Or was it a bot farm in a basement 5,000 miles away?

Estimates suggest that 15-20% of all PPC traffic is fraudulent or invalid. If you spend $10,000 a month, that is $2,000 set on fire.

In this guide, we break down the three types of "Bad Traffic" and give you the shields to stop them.

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Part 1: The Three Enemies

1. The Competitor (Malicious)

This is simple spite. Your competitor sees your ad above theirs. They click it to drain your budget.

• Scale: Usually low volume, but expensive (Search CPCs are high).
• Behavior: Same IP address, coming back daily, never converting.

2. The Bot Farm (Sophisticated)

These are automated scripts designed to mimic human behavior to generate ad revenue for publishers.

• Scale: Massive.
• Behavior: They browse sites, click ads, and sometimes even fill out fake forms to look "real" to the algorithm.

3. The "Fat Finger" (Mobile Apps)

This is the most common budget killer.

• Scenario: A user (often a child) is playing a free game like "Flashlight App". An ad pops up right where the "Next Level" button is. They accidentally click it.
• Result: You pay for the click. They bounce instantly. This is 90% of Display Network waste.

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Part 2: Diagnosis (How to Spot It)

You can't block what you can't see. Check these signals.

1. The "CTR Spike" Anomaly

• Go to your campaign view. Look at CTR daily.
• If your average CTR is 3%, and suddenly Tuesday hits 12%, that is not "brand awareness." That is a bot attack.

2. The "0 Second" Bounce

• Check Google Analytics 4.
• Filter for "Session Source / Medium = google / cpc".
• Look at Engagement Rate. If it is <10% for a specific campaign, you are paying for ghosts.

3. The Geographic Cluster

• Go to "User Locations".
• Are you getting 50 clicks from a tiny town in Kansas where you have no business? That's likely a data center IP masking a bot.

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Part 3: The Defense (Search Campaigns)

Google has automated filters (Invalid Clicks column) that catch the obvious stuff and refund you automatically. But they miss the sophisticated stuff.

1. IP Exclusions (Manual) If you see a suspicious pattern in your server logs:

• Go to Settings → Additional Settings → IP Exclusions.
• Paste the IP addresses. (Note: This is hard to maintain manually).

2. Audience Exclusions (The "Unknown" Layer)

• Exclude "Unknown" demographics?
  • Debate: Some marketers say "Exclude Unknown Age/Gender to avoid bots."
  • Reality: Google classifies 30% of legit users as "Unknown" because of privacy settings. If you block "Unknown", you block real customers. Be careful.

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Part 4: The Defense (Display/PMax Campaigns)

This is where the real money is saved. You must exclude mobile apps.

The "Mobile App" Trap: Google loves showing your ads on "Flappy Bird Clones" because there is massive inventory. It is junk.

How to Block All Mobile Apps:

1. Go to Tools & Settings → Placement Exclusion Lists.
2. Create a new list: "Block All Apps".
3. Enter the code: mobileappcategory::69500.
   • Note: This specific ID targets the "All Apps" category. Even if Google hides the checkbox, this backend code often works.
4. Apply this list to all campaigns.

Result: Your Display budget now only goes to Websites (New York Times, CNN, Blogs), which are infinitey higher quality than "Talking Tom Cat".

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Part 5: Seeking Refunds

If you have proof of click fraud, you can ask Google for money back.

The Process:

1. Gather your web server logs showing the timestamp, IP, and User Agent of the suspicious clicks.
2. Go to the Click Quality Form (Search "Google Ads Click Quality Form").
3. Submit the data.
4. Wait 2-4 weeks.

Success Rate: It is low (~10-20%). Google will claim their systems already caught the invalid clicks. But for large attacks ($1,000+ lost), it is worth the paperwork.

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Summary

You are the guardian of the budget.

1. Monitor CTR: Spikes = Danger.
2. Kill Mobile Apps: Use placement exclusions to stop the "Fat Finger" waste on Display.
3. Trust but Verify: Check the "Invalid Clicks" column in your campaign report to see how many Google is catching automatically.

A clean account is a profitable account.