How Google prevents invalid traffic

Our specialists carefully monitor clicks, impressions, and other events on Google ads in order to protect your interests as well as those of our advertisers. To do this, we use both automated systems and human reviews, analyzing all ad clicks and impressions for any invalid traffic that may artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings.

Google's invalid traffic defenses analyze clicks, impressions, and other related metrics to determine irregular usage patterns to ensure that all engagement on our platform is reported accurately and and fairly billed. Our system uses sophisticated filters to distinguish between traffic generated through normal use by users and traffic that may pose a risk to our advertisers. Some examples of this include clicks or impressions generated by bad actors, automated robots and traffic sources, and publishers encouraging clicks on their ads. Our system enables us to filter out most invalid traffic, and our advertisers are not charged for this traffic. Learn more at our Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center.

In addition to our invalid traffic defenses, we have a team dedicated to detecting invalid traffic using several specialized tools and a wide variety of techniques based on extensive experience analyzing user behavior and scenarios. We continually upgrade our detection mechanisms to proactively combat invalid traffic.

To prevent invalid traffic in your account, ensure that your ad implementation complies with our Program policies, and that you haven’t paid for traffic from an unreliable source. Learn more in AdSense policies: a beginner's guide.

If you’re concerned that a third party may be generating invalid traffic on your ads, see our tips for preventing invalid traffic.