Do you pay for invalid clicks on Google Ads?

If you see invalid clicks in Google Ads they may be quite concerning. You may feel that you are stuck having to pay for them just because you’re running Google Ads. Guess again, thankfully Google is a step or 3 ahead of most. They know there are bots on the internet and others who are illegally clicking on ads. For that they have filters to catch these invalid clicks and they will subtract the amount spent on invalid clicks from your monthly invoice. You are not charged for invalid clicks on Google Ads.

How can you find how many invalid clicks you have?

There are specific columns in the Google Ads platform which will tell you exactly how many invalid clicks you have for a specific campaign. If you don’t see the columns in your table on Google Ads, you may need to add them in.

Just go to the “columns” icon > “modify columns” and search for “invalid.”

Choose all of them by checking the boxes next to each one.

Then you will see columns appearing like this.

In the example above you will see the first campaign has 244 invalid clicks in the given period with an invalid click rate of 4.66%.

Most of the time, invalid clicks and invalid interactions will show the same number. The same for invalid click rate and invalid interaction rate. The only time it may change is if display and/or video is involved.

In the example above, approximately 4.66% of clicks turned out to be invalid. This equaled up to 244 clicks.

Thankfully, Google figured out how to filter out these bad clicks and provides us with a way to save money on bad clicks.

What happens if I feel I’m seeing many more invalid clicks than what the columns show in Google Ads?

If you are feeling your account is pulling in many more invalid clicks yet Google says the percentage is low, it is time to investigate. You will want to watch your account for certain IP addresses which coincide with high levels of activity (clicks) but usually very high bounce rates and very low time on site.

Here’s what to do next. Reach out to Google. You can use this troubleshooter. If you would prefer to speak with someone, or submit it to Google you can reach out here. This is Google’s Click Quality Form. Here is a sneak peek.

Related

Can You Use Bid Adjustments on Devices in Performance Max Campaigns?

Can You Add Negative Keywords to Performance Max Campaigns?

What is Clickup and Who Uses It?