A Google Ads targeting tactic that cut invalid clicks by 50%
After Google said it had already filtered suspicious activity, this unexpected approach restored campaign profitability.
Topic: Click fraud
How Google Display exclusions guide AI-driven optimization
Accidental clicks, bot traffic, and low-quality placements contaminate campaign data. Strategic exclusions help keep optimization on track.
Google spotlights invalid click credits with new Ads help documentation
Google's Invalid Activity Credit Report gives advertisers a clearer view of refunded spend from invalid clicks and traffic.
Click fraud in Google Ads: Where exposure rises and how to reduce it
From Video Partners to Search, fraud exposure isn’t equal. Learn where invalid clicks spike and how to shift toward higher-intent traffic.
Google: Forced syndication would permanently expose its ad systems
Google warns that a court-ordered ad syndication could expose its ad algorithms, increase click fraud, and deliver less relevant traffic.
Google clarifies policy on false information in advertiser verification
Google reinforces policy that submitting false information during advertiser verification is a violation that can lead to account suspension.
ChatGPT Atlas browser could drain ad budgets by mimicking human clicks
OpenAI's new AI browser ChatGPT Atlas can mimic human clicks, potentially inflating ad costs and distorting website analytics.
Brand protection is growth protection in an AI Search world
Brand protection fuels growth. Discover three hidden PPC pitfalls wasting your budget and how AI can turn defense into ROI.
Google Ads updated policies to target dishonest pricing practices
Google Ads Misrepresentation policy will be updated on October 28, 2025.
Ad hijacking: Understanding the threat and learning from Adidas
Affiliate ad hijacking steals your traffic and trust. Learn how to spot it, stop it, and protect your budget with smarter monitoring.
Supreme Court lets $7 billion Meta ad fraud case proceed
The class-action lawsuit against Meta could mean compensation for advertisers charged based on allegedly inflated reach numbers.
Google cracks down on ad policy violators with harsh new penalties
Upcoming third-party policy update enforces severe penalties for significant violations, including immediate account suspension
Why you should turn off optimized targeting in GDN today
This Google feature sounds too good to be true, and it mostly is. Here are the pitfalls and how to navigate them.
Incrementality testing in advertising: Who are the winners and losers?
Find out which strategies are undervalued or overvalued and how to optimize your ad spend for maximum impact.
Advertisers sue Meta for allegedly inflating ad viewership in $7 billion lawsuit
The advertisers claim they were unfairly charged inflated premiums to serve ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Brands unknowingly wasting ad dollars on Made for Advertising sites, claims report
An Adalytics study found that ads are being placed on MFA sites through programmatic and non-programmatic channels.
Lifting the lid on Google’s black box to find growth
Proven tactics to uncover the blindspots: Performance Max, CPC inflation and affiliate growth.
Has Google Ads lost all credibility? Why one advertiser says it’s time to leave
"There should not be one ounce of trust left that any advertiser has in Google Ads," according to Greg Finn.
Suspended Google Ads advertisers may be required to pass advertiser verification
This policy kicks in on October 10, 2023 and will impact some advertisers.
Google issues refunds amid accusations it missold ads on third-party websites
The search engine was accused of violating its own advertising standards 80% of the time in a study conducted by Adalytics.
Google accused of mis-selling ads on third-party websites for years
Advertisers may have lost billions of digital ad dollars by paying premium prices for a service that Google allegedly failed to deliver.
Google has updated its Traffic Quality site with new text and policy visuals
One example of invalid traffic is the use of deceptive elements on a web page in a way that a user is tricked into clicking on an ad that they didn't expect to click on.
How paid marketers are fighting back against the Fake Web
Bots and fake users steal ad clicks, pollute audience targeting, and skew metrics. Paid marketers are learning to protect themselves.
You still don’t have marketing security?
How fighting bots and fake users became the modern marketer's top priority.
Ad fraud prevention firm CHEQ enters PPC market
The company says it offers the first cybersecurity-based platform for paid search and paid social ad fraud prevention.
Marketing in a distracted, digital world
In today’s world, digital media is so pervasive that it’s no longer considered unique; it’s a way of life. Virtually everyone has a smartphone, and most individuals and households have multiple smart devices, including tablets, phones and computers. This prevalence, coupled with the rise of Big Data, digital marketing tools and social media, has given […]
Advertisers get claim notices for Google’s $22.5M settlement over ads on parked domains
The settlement stems from a case that dates back to 2008 about Google ads showing on error pages and parked domains.
Google Loses Appeal By AdWords Advertisers In Suit Over Ads On Error Pages
Ruling overturns lower court denial of class-action status for advertisers, paving the way for plaintiffs to be able to sue as a group. Higher court also sides with advertisers on methods for calculating restitution.
Google Settles Shareholder Suit, Will Set Aside $250M To Disrupt Rogue Online Drug Ads
Google will create a $250 million internal program to battle rogue online pharmacies as part of a deal to end a shareholder lawsuit, Reuters reported today. The litigation was sparked by Google’s $500 million settlement in 2011 with the U.S. Justice Department, which alleged that the search company accepted advertisements from foreign pharmacies that illegally […]
SearchCap: Google Timeline Knowledge Graph, AdWords Click Fraud Service & Google Axing Features
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Conduct A Winning Local Search Audit Every week, our support team at BrightLocal fields numerous questions from our customers about how best to conduct a local search audit. The […]
AdWords Click Fraud Service Found Using Google’s Trademark, Promoting Itself On YouTube
How’s this for brazen? For at least two years, a Russian hacker has been running a cheekily-named click fraud service called GoodGoogle, promoting it in videos on Google’s YouTube and using Gmail accounts to correspond with customers. Online security expert, Brian Krebs, recently brought the scam to light. The service enables advertisers to quickly run […]
Click Fraud
Click fraud is the process of generating disingenuous clicks. It can take place anywhere along the ad buying/selling chain, for example: Ad agencies who want to impress their clients so click on their ads a lot to drive up CTR Website owners who want to impress Ad Networks/Advertisers so click on their ads a lot […]
Spotted: Stunning AdWords Policy Violations That Facebook & Google Shouldn’t Be Happy About
Behold a brilliant display of Google AdWords advertising policy violations: This ad was spotted by Luke Alley from Avalaunch Media. As it turns out, Alley unearthed a deep pit teeming with ad violations. Search for “facebook support” on Google, and you’ll quickly see the ads are crawling with AdWords policy violations. The ad above features “Symbols, numbers, and letters […]
Google To State AG’s: We’ve Blocked Over 3 Million Bad Ads From “Rogue Online Pharmacies”
As part of its response to a potential subpoena by the Mississippi attorney general and accusations from The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) earlier this month that Google facilitates the sale of drugs without a prescription, among other illegal transactions, Google legal director, Adam Barea, says the company has blocked or removed from its systems more […]
Bing Ads Launches Traffic Quality Center
Microsoft announced the launch of The Bing Ads Traffic Quality Resource Center today, a website designed to give advertisers and publishers visibility into the traffic quality protection systems of the Yahoo! Bing Network. The site includes sections that cover terminology, network protection methods, an overview of where ads on the Yahoo! Bing network will appear, […]
Troubleshooting
Online Advertising is a confusing and complicated industry – mainly technically, but also morally and personally. Learning to be good at troubleshooting is a key skill to maximising your ad revenue, and not to be taken lightly. From learning to fix ads to learning to deal with the most annoying people, troubleshooting in advertising is […]
Google Disapproved 134M Ads And Disabled More Than 800K AdWords Accounts In 2011
Like fighting spam and click fraud, finding and nixing bad ads on AdWords is a continually escalating battle. One telling stat the company revealed in a blog post today: 134 million. That’s how many ads Google axed in 2011, a 136% rise from the year before. Back in 2008, the company only disapproved 25 million […]
Behind The Scenes In Google’s Battle Against Bad Ads
When new employees join the Google ad quality team that manually reviews suspect ads, they start by studying internal documentation of policies that outline examples of ads that would be approved, and those that would be rejected. Then the employees’ skills are tested on ads that don’t run, they graduate to ads that get little […]
WSJ: Federal Prisoner Helped U.S. Sting Against Google’s Pharmacy Ads
It’s been a difficult month for Google, and the company is bound to take another hit in the morning as a Wall Street Journal article makes the rounds — an article that offers new details about the government sting that compelled Google to pay $500 million after acknowledging that it both allowed and helped Canadian […]
How The Food Network Suddenly Spiked In Popularity & Why comScore Isn’t Buying It
In May 2011, the mantle of the most-trafficked food site according to comScore passed to Food Network from AllRecipes, who had held the position for over two years. What was its secret recipe? Buying an audience through the AdOn network – a recipe that apparently didn’t ultimately taste right to comScore. They determined the surge […]