How to Prevent Click Bombing and Invalid Clicks on Google AdSense

As a website owner and blogger, I rely on Google AdSense to generate income and monetize my content. But there’s always a risk of click bombing and invalid clicks that can not only harm my earnings but also put my account in danger of being banned. So, I’ve done some research and gathered information on how to prevent click bombing and invalid clicks on Google AdSense. Here’s what I’ve found:

How does Google prevent bad ads?

Google has a multi-layered approach to preventing bad ads from appearing on their platform. Here are some of the ways they do it:

1. Automated systems: Google uses machine learning algorithms to scan ads and websites for signs of bad behavior. These algorithms can detect things like misleading claims, hidden text, and malware.
2. Human reviewers: In addition to automated systems, Google also has a team of human reviewers who manually check ads and websites for signs of bad behavior. These reviewers are trained to identify scams, misleading claims, and other kinds of bad ads.
3. Policies and guidelines: Google has a strict set of policies and guidelines that advertisers must follow in order to place ads on their platform. These policies cover things like misleading claims, illegal activities, and offensive content.
4. User feedback: Google also takes user feedback into account when determining the quality of ads on their platform. If a user reports an ad as being misleading or harmful, Google will investigate and take action if necessary.

What is Click Bombing?

Click bombing, also known as click fraud, is a malicious practice of generating invalid clicks on a Google AdSense ad to artificially increase ad revenue. Click bombing can also occur as a form of sabotage, where competitors or malicious individuals intentionally click on ads to reduce the website’s ad performance. This can lead to the suspension or termination of your AdSense account.

What are Invalid Clicks?

Invalid clicks are clicks on a pay-per-click (PPC) ad that are not generated by actual customers but instead by automated bots, click farms, or competitors trying to drive up your ad costs. These clicks are a big problem because they can result in advertisers paying for clicks that don’t result in real customers or sales. This means they’re essentially throwing money down the drain.

As a result, Google has a robust system in place to prevent invalid clicks. In fact, the company invests a significant amount of time, money, and resources into protecting advertisers from these fraudulent clicks. Here’s how they do it:

1. Real-time filtering

Google uses a real-time filtering system to detect invalid clicks as soon as they happen. This system is designed to filter out clicks that come from sources that are likely to be fraudulent. For example, if the system detects a sudden spike in clicks from a specific IP address, it may filter out those clicks as fraudulent.

2. Proactive monitoring

Google has a team of experts who monitor all of its ad campaigns 24/7. This team is responsible for identifying and investigating any suspicious activity that could be related to invalid clicks. The team also collaborates with advertisers to better understand their business and detect any activity that may be considered suspicious.

3. Machine learning

Google uses machine learning to analyze billions of data points and identify patterns of fraudulent activity. This technology can detect patterns of click fraud that might not be noticeable to the human eye.

4. Click quality score

Google assigns each click a quality score, which takes into account factors like click-through rate, user behavior, and other data points. This score helps Google identify invalid clicks and filter them out from billing.

5. Refunds and credits

Finally, Google has a system in place to offer refunds or credits to advertisers for invalid clicks. If the system detects that an advertiser has been charged for invalid clicks, Google will automatically refund or credit the advertiser’s account.

Protecting Your AdSense Account from Click Bombing

Here are some steps you can take to avoid getting click bombed on WordPress:

1. Install an anti-click bombing plugin: There are several anti-click bombing plugins available for WordPress that can help protect your site from click bombing. These plugins can detect and block repeated clicks from the same IP address, or limit the number of clicks that can come from a single IP address in a given period of time. Example Ad Invalid Click Protector (AICP).
2. Monitor your site’s analytics: Keep an eye on your site’s analytics to look for unusual patterns of traffic or clicks. If you notice a sudden spike in clicks from a particular IP address or region, it could be a sign of click bombing.
3. Limit ad placement: Limit the number of ads you place on your site, and make sure they’re not clustered together in a way that makes it easy for an attacker to repeatedly click on them.
4. Block suspicious IP addresses: You can block suspicious IP addresses from accessing your site using a firewall or security plugin. This can help prevent click bombing and other forms of malicious activity.

Here alternative Ad Invalid Click Protector if your server not WordPress site, you can use javascript by Kiat Media :

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
let runAdsDef = true,
      maxClick = 10,
      adsCksEx = 24,
      nmeCks = "noinvalid",
      tagElm = "ins",
      aksiAds = "hide",
      nmeElm = ["adsbygoogle", "google_ads", "aswift", "ad_iframe"],
      runAutDef = "https://www.google.com/search?q=" + location.host;
//]]>
</script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/Iquaridys/kmedia/invalidguard.js"/>

Explanation:

• runAdsDef : Run click invalid protector or not (true / false)
• maxClick : The maximum number of ad clicks allowed.
• adsCksEx : How long (hours) ad click cookies are stored.
• nmeCks : The name of the cookie to be stored.
• tagElm : What element tag to change when maxClick is met ( “ins” / “iframe” / etc).
• aksiAds : Actions performed on the tagElm element when maxClick is met;
  • “disabled” : displays ads but cannot be clicked.
  • “hide” : hide the ads that appear.
  • “remove” : removes ads elements.
  • “URLs” : Will be redirected to that address.
• nmeElm : The name of the ID or class element tags that you want to detect.
• runAutDef : Trying to detect browser using an automated such as puppeteer, selenium, playwright, cypress.
  • true : When it is detected it will immediately carry out aksiAds .
  • false : Does not run the user browser check.
  • “URLs” : When detected, it will be redirected to that address.

You cannot add the crossorigin attribute to the script above because this script requires access to cookies to store data on how many times the user clicks. Don’t worry, we will not send any data to any web. You can find out by looking at Network in Developer Tools.

Try Running it in Console by copy code inside invalidguard.js with config runAdsDef on your browser to competitor’s site where have adsense, click the ads with CTRL+Left Click.

You can also combine the two scripts above and host it on your own server, make sure not to include script tags. This script works well to any elements not only iframe or adsense .

It took hours of coding, designing, testing and doing some bug fixes to make this happen. We encrypt it because we also want to share it for free. If you want to help us please buy the unencrypted version, you can expand this script to other things because one of its features can detect user clicks well.

Detection: Analyzing Traffic Quality and AdSense Policy Center

To detect click bombing and invalid clicks on AdSense, publishers can analyze traffic quality and use the AdSense Policy Center to identify suspicious activities. Traffic quality refers to the level of engagement and conversion rates of visitors to a website. If a site has high traffic but low engagement and conversion rates, it could be a sign of click bombing or invalid clicks.

The AdSense Policy Center is a tool that provides publishers with insights into their ad traffic, earnings, and policy compliance. It also alerts publishers to any policy violations, such as invalid clicks or click bombing, and provides guidance on how to resolve these issues.

Reporting: Reporting to AdSense and Protecting Your Account

If publishers suspect click bombing or invalid clicks on their AdSense account, they should immediately report it to AdSense. This will not only protect their account but also help the AdSense community to identify and prevent fraudulent activities. Publishers can report invalid clicks by going to the “Invalid activity” tab in the AdSense dashboard, selecting the “Report invalid activity” button, and providing details of the activity or you can go here Invalid Click Activity.