As I wrote in the first post, the initiation of this site was spurred by Google’s earnings deductions, which I am not sure are justified. I will write more about that in another post, but below you can find the message that appears in the Google AdSense account inbox if Google believes there are invalid clicks.
| Learn more about your earnings deductions and how to avoid them |
| Here is some additional context |
| Based on feedback from publishers, we are piloting a beta initiative to provide more information to publishers experiencing deductions in their earnings. We hope this information helps you to better understand possible causes and work on improvements for future months. |
| As a part of this program, we want to notify you that your March earnings were subject to a deduction for invalid activity that was detected by our systems. This system enables us to filter out most invalid traffic, and our advertisers are not charged for this traffic. Note that this deduction will be reflected in your finalized earnings next week. |
What is invalid activity?
In a nutshell, it’s any activity that doesn’t come from a real user with genuine interest. It can include accidental clicks caused by intrusive ad implementations, fraudulent clicking by competing advertisers, advertising botnets and more.
How can you help prevent invalid traffic?
While we work hard to protect you from invalid traffic and advertising fraud, there are steps you can take to help. Below, we’ve gathered some resources to help minimize the risk of invalid activity affecting your business.
- If you’re purchasing traffic to your properties
We would advise you first to be very careful when purchasing traffic and review the traffic provider checklist to help guide your discussions with potential providers.- Once you move forward with a traffic provider, make sure to segment your traffic. It’s the best way to assess what type of traffic you are receiving. Try the tips here.
- You can then make some decisions on the traffic you are purchasing and change your traffic buying behavior.
- You can block suspicious sources by blocking certain IPs from clicking on your ads. Although we’re unable to block IP addresses for you, there are ways that you can directly block suspicious IP addresses from visiting your site. We suggest that you reach out to your site administrator for further instructions.
- If you believe there is a possibility of sabotage on your sites, we recommend reviewing this article on sabotage and how to prevent it. You can also report suspicious activity directly to our traffic team by using our invalid clicks contact form.
- If you’re serving ads on click-intensive pages or mobile pages:
We recommend that you conduct some user tests and assess how users can navigate your pages. We’ve seen that users will often accidentally click when page elements move unexpectedly, there are ads near game play, or ads are placed near navigational elements.- Make sure to label your ads properly, and ensure that any navigation buttons (e.g. next page icon) are positioned correctly.
- Double-check your ad implementations and make sure they are free from programming errors, conform to AdSense Program Policies, and interact properly with different browsers and platforms. A well-implemented page can protect you from unintended consequences like accidental clicks.
- Make sure you review all the Ad placement policies for more implementations that might cause accidental clicks. Encouraging accidental clicks is strictly prohibited, as outlined in our ad placement policies.
- Finally, remember don’t click on your own ads, even if you’re interested in an ad or looking for its destination URL.
At the end of the email, Google provides four links.
Need help:
Ad Traffic Quality resource centre
AdSense Policy
* I tried all the links at the end of the email, but none of them worked. I’ve included a working link in this post.