NativeWhich MGID sources send bot traffic?
ValidVisit judges every MGID visit Valid or Invalid and pins it to the source that sent it, worst first.
source (new campaigns) or widget in MGIDBuyer checks the offending widget UIDs in the Widget optimization tab and clicks the pause icon to exclude them, or bulk-uploads a CSV of UIDs via Import → Widget Blocklist (max 1,000 widgets per import). On a campaign with Sources Optimization the buyer turns the source OFF in the Sources Optimization tab, which adds it to that campaign’s Sources Blocklist.
MGID review for advertisers.
MGID is a large native network sold on prepaid CPC, with a $100 minimum deposit and no CPA buying. It is unusually open about invalid traffic: rejected clicks aren’t charged, it names Pixalate and Anura as partners, and it corrects invalid traffic above 5% of billed clicks within a 30-day window, while saying plainly that residual risk remains. Read visits per widget and source, block the weak ones, and file corrections in writing within 30 days. We don’t run MGID campaigns ourselves; the facts below are MGID’s own pages.
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Pricing | Prepaid CPC; MGID doesn’t offer CPA buying. source |
| Minimum deposit | $100, with $650 or more recommended; card in most regions, wire through your manager. source |
| Minimum bid | Not published; your onboarding manager or live chat gives it. source |
| Moderation | Up to 24 hours for English ads, up to 72 hours for other languages. source |
| Blocking | Pause widgets or import up to 1,000 by CSV; Sources Optimization handles up to 1,000 sources at a time, with CPC multipliers from 0.1 to 10. source |
| Bot traffic | Rejected clicks aren’t charged; it names Pixalate, Anura (on demand) and TAG Certified Against Fraud, and says residual risk remains. source |
| IVT corrections | Applied when invalid traffic exceeds 5% of billed clicks and at least $5, typically for the last 30 days, with no fixed refund timeline. source |
| Terms | MGID’s Final Report is the conclusive basis for fees; disputes go in writing within 30 days, with evidence (§4.4). source |
| Refunds | Unspent funds, with no fees, to the original payment method, through your manager. source |
| Trustpilot | 3.0/5 from 75 reviews on 26 October 2026, publishers and advertisers mixed; advertisers split between bot complaints and stable results. |
- Detail
- Prepaid CPC; MGID doesn’t offer CPA buying. source
- Detail
- $100, with $650 or more recommended; card in most regions, wire through your manager. source
- Detail
- Not published; your onboarding manager or live chat gives it. source
- Detail
- Up to 24 hours for English ads, up to 72 hours for other languages. source
- Detail
- Pause widgets or import up to 1,000 by CSV; Sources Optimization handles up to 1,000 sources at a time, with CPC multipliers from 0.1 to 10. source
- Detail
- Rejected clicks aren’t charged; it names Pixalate, Anura (on demand) and TAG Certified Against Fraud, and says residual risk remains. source
- Detail
- Applied when invalid traffic exceeds 5% of billed clicks and at least $5, typically for the last 30 days, with no fixed refund timeline. source
- Detail
- MGID’s Final Report is the conclusive basis for fees; disputes go in writing within 30 days, with evidence (§4.4). source
- Detail
- Unspent funds, with no fees, to the original payment method, through your manager. source
- Detail
- 3.0/5 from 75 reviews on 26 October 2026, publishers and advertisers mixed; advertisers split between bot complaints and stable results.
- Named third-party anti-fraud partners and TAG certification.
- A written IVT correction policy with clear thresholds.
- Widget and source-level blocking, with CPC multipliers.
- Fee-free refunds of unspent funds.
- No CPA buying, and minimum bids only through your manager.
- Corrections need invalid traffic above 5% of billed clicks.
- Moderation of non-English ads can take up to 72 hours.
- MGID’s own report is the conclusive basis for fees.
Checked against MGID’s own pages on 2026-10-26. ValidVisit is independent of MGID.
See which MGID sources send bots before you scale.
- Every MGID visit judged Valid or Invalid, worst source first.
- Pinned to the source that sent it, through MGID’s own tracking tokens.
- One script on your landing page, nothing added to the click path.
How bot traffic slips in through MGID sources.
MGID distributes your ads as teasers inside widgets placed on publisher sites, and charges on a prepaid CPC model. MGID says its default campaign statistics are already net of the invalid traffic it identifies: a rejected click is not charged to the advertiser and is not paid to the publisher. It also says it does not guarantee fraud-free traffic, and that measurement on the advertiser’s landing page sits outside its own. MGID’s {widget_id} and {click_id} tokens tie each judged visit to the widget and click that produced it, giving you a per-widget breakdown built on your own data rather than the network’s aggregate reporting.
MGID publishes its own description of how it handles invalid traffic. It splits it into general invalid traffic, caught with lists of known bots, crawlers and data-center IP addresses, and sophisticated invalid traffic, caught with behavioral analysis and third-party verification. Clicks matching its lists can be rejected before they are billed, and further rejections can be applied during the calendar day of the click. Once that day’s statistics are finalized, a click’s status is not reopened.
What that leaves is the residual MGID itself acknowledges. On your landing page it appears as Invalid verdicts, and the useful question is where they sit: when they cluster on a few {widget_id} values instead of spreading across the campaign’s placements, the widget is the unit to act on. MGID applies a correction for billed clicks later found invalid when they exceed 5% of a campaign’s billed clicks and the amount is at least USD 5, and it reviews other cases on request, so a per-widget record of your own is what you bring to your account manager.
What to watch on MGID
{widget_id} concentration against campaign baselineA well-distributed MGID campaign spreads clicks across many widgets. When a few {widget_id} values account for a disproportionate share of clicks, with an invalid share above your campaign average, review them in the Widget optimization tab, or the Sources Optimization tab on campaigns that use it, before the imbalance compounds.
Sources Optimization is an option you enable when you create a campaign; existing campaigns can be moved to it, but the move can’t be undone. With it on, the Widget optimization tab and its widget UIDs are not displayed: you manage traffic by source, shown as a domain or app name. MGID recommends adding source={source} to your tracking tags on those campaigns, and {source_id} passes the source’s unique identifier, so the unit in your ValidVisit report matches the unit you can switch off.
MGID lets you set a CPC multiplier per widget or source, down to 0.1, and its own guidance is to reduce the rate on a source that misses your ROI rather than disable it. That suits valid traffic that converts poorly. A widget whose visits are judged Invalid is a case for blocking.
What MGID lets you judge by.
Invalid share broken down by:
- Source ID
{source_id}The source (a domain or app): the unit you switch off on campaigns with Sources Optimization, the default for new campaigns.
Invalid share broken down by:
- Widget ID
{widget_id}The widget: the unit you pause on campaigns that still use the Widget optimization tab.
Per-click id: MGID passes a unique click id, and ValidVisit stores it with each visit, so a verdict traces back to the click in MGID’s own reports.
Compare bot & invalid-traffic breakdown across every ad network →See your own MGID sub-sources judged this way.
How ValidVisit attributes MGID traffic
Each MGID macro maps to a normalized parameter, so every judged visit is pinned to the right campaign, creative and publisher.
https://yoursite.com/landing?utm_source=mgid&utm_medium=native&vv_campaign_id={campaign_id}&vv_creative_id={teaser_id}&vv_publisher_id={source_id}&vv_placement_id={widget_id}&vv_click_id={click_id}| Token | MGID macro | Maps to | Identifies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign ID | {campaign_id} | campaign_id | campaign |
| Teaser (Creative) | {teaser_id} | creative_id | creative |
| Source ID | {source_id} | publisher_id | publisher |
| Widget ID | {widget_id} | placement_id | placement |
| Click ID | {click_id} | click_id | click |
- MGID macro
{campaign_id}- Maps to
- campaign_id
- Identifies
- campaign
- MGID macro
{teaser_id}- Maps to
- creative_id
- Identifies
- creative
- MGID macro
{source_id}- Maps to
- publisher_id
- Identifies
- publisher
- MGID macro
{widget_id}- Maps to
- placement_id
- Identifies
- placement
- MGID macro
{click_id}- Maps to
- click_id
- Identifies
- click
Macros checked against MGID’s own documentation on 2026-10-02. MGID docs
The verdict works the same way on every network. ValidVisit never changes your MGID account: you make the exclusion there yourself. How the verdict works →
MGID traffic quality, answered.
Is MGID legit?
MGID is a large, long-running native ad network with published terms, TAG certification and named anti-fraud partners. It corrects invalid traffic above 5% of billed clicks, so judge visits per widget and source and send evidence in writing within 30 days.
Does ValidVisit work with MGID’s tracking tokens, or do I need custom setup?
No custom setup. In the campaign’s tracking step, add the macros in the Tracking Tags block and MGID fills them in on every click. {widget_id} and {click_id} tie each verdict to the originating widget and click. Adding {campaign_id} gives cross-campaign segmentation, useful when the same {widget_id} appears in campaigns with different targeting. {teaser_id} identifies the ad, and MGID lists it beside {click_id} and {widget_id} as the three standard macros to add. On campaigns with Sources Optimization, add {source} and {source_id} too.
How do I block a widget in MGID?
Open the campaign’s Widget optimization tab in the MGID Ads dashboard, check the offending widget UIDs and click the pause icon. For a longer list, bulk-upload a CSV of UIDs via Import → Widget Blocklist, up to 1,000 widgets per import. On a campaign with Sources Optimization, turn the source OFF in the Sources Optimization tab instead, which adds it to that campaign’s Sources Blocklist. The per-visit verdicts behind each {widget_id} double as an audit trail if you dispute charges or request make-goods.
Can MGID block widgets automatically?
MGID’s Rules-Based Optimization can auto-block widgets or sources that breach rules you define. Those rules act on MGID’s own metrics, such as conversion cost, conversion rate and ROI, not on ValidVisit verdicts.
Does MGID already remove invalid clicks?
MGID says its default MGID Ads reports are net of known invalid traffic and that rejected clicks are not billed. When identified invalid traffic is more than 5% of a campaign’s billed clicks and the amount is no less than USD 5, MGID applies a correction, typically for the last 30 days. You can also request a review through your Account Manager or Success Manager.
Which targeting controls does MGID offer?
MGID’s campaign setup lists geo (countries, with regions and cities included or excluded), platform, OS, connection type, browser and browser language. Its advertiser API also documents an IP filter that keeps a campaign’s ads from being shown to listed IP addresses or subnets.
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