Google has dedicated a number of resources to protect advertisers against invalid clicks. Learn about our automatic filters and team of invalid click specialists.
In addition to our invalid click detection system, there are a variety of AdWords features and reports that you can use to monitor your account's activity.
I. Optimisation
Your first line of defence against invalid activity is to optimise your account so that your ads receive only the most targeted clicks and impressions. Keep in mind that conversion rate is often the best indicator of successful advertising. Identifying and correcting low-conversion areas in your account will also work towards identifying potential areas of invalid activity.
Visit our Optimisation Tips page to learn how to optimise your account.
II. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you monitor various aspects of your AdWords account, including conversion rate, visitor behaviour and campaign performance.
Google Analytics provides dozens of reports that you can use to refine traffic to your ads. A useful technique to note is:
Evaluating location and language: Run a Map Overlay or Language visitor report to see your traffic statistics broken down by geographic region or language, respectively. If you notice that traffic from a certain region or language is not converting well, consider reducing the budget for the associated campaign or no longer targeting that region or language.
Learn how to implement and use Google Analytics.
III. Account Reports
The performance reports available on the Reports tab of your AdWords account are a useful supplement to your Google Analytics data. See instructions for running a report.
To take full advantage of your account reports, it's important to be able to see conversion data. To ensure that you get conversion data in your reports:
- Enable conversion tracking, if you haven't already done so.
- When running a report, make sure that you:
- Click Add or Remove Columns in the Advanced Settings (Optional) section.
- In the Conversion Columns section, tick all the conversion statistics that you're interested in seeing.
IV. Monitoring the Content Network
For campaigns opted in to the content network, monitor your ads' conversion rates on content sites with the Placement Performance report. (Learn to enable conversion tracking, if you haven't already done so.)
If you notice that clicks from the content network are not converting as well as clicks from Google or the search network, consider reducing your content bids.
If you find that a particular content site is not converting well, consider excluding it from your campaign with the Site and Category Exclusion tool.
