Search ad networks: click fraud & invalid traffic
Detect bots and invalid traffic across search networks, with every visit scored 0–100 per campaign and publisher.
Every search network, scored.
Pick a network for its scored breakdown, tracking tokens and the exact exclusion you can take.
Most clicks from a well-targeted search campaign are genuine — search is intent-led, and that makes it the highest-quality channel for many advertisers. But it carries two invalid-traffic pressures the others don't, and both are quiet: they distort budget pacing and bid-algorithm signals long before they show up in aggregate metrics.
How fraud works on search.
Where invalid traffic concentrates
Two patterns dominate, and neither runs at obvious volume:
- Patterns consistent with competitor automation on high-CPC branded or category terms — sessions with near-zero dwell, no scroll, and device-and-origin patterns clustering around a small set of automated environments. The impact is on budget and Smart Bidding signal quality, not on raw impression counts.
- Extended-inventory mismatch — Search Partners and Performance Max reach beyond core search, and some of that inventory originates from sub-sources whose network owner or geography doesn't fit a plausible search session.
Search invalid traffic is defined by how tightly it concentrates — a handful of exact-match terms, narrow time windows, or specific geo clusters — while blending into otherwise clean traffic.
What ValidVisit scores
For search clicks, the most diagnostic signals come from where the click originated and how the visitor behaves: automated toolkits and server-farm infrastructure leave consistent patterns that differ sharply from a browser opened by a person after typing a query. ValidVisit weighs each visit against 100+ such data points — network, device, and behaviour — and combines them into a single 0–100 quality score, so genuine humans pass and automation stands out. It loads asynchronously on the landing page and passes the click id (e.g. `gclid`) through untouched — nothing on the click path, so conversion tracking and Quality Score signals are never disrupted.
Reading the result — and what you can do
Because search invalid traffic is concentrated rather than high-volume, it only becomes legible when scored per click and attributed back to the dimension where it clusters — keyword, campaign, or network segment. The honest part: on core search you can't exclude an individual publisher. The levers are opting out of Search Partners / extended inventory, applying IP exclusions where the platform allows, shifting budget off the segments ValidVisit scores dirty, and filing invalid-click credit claims backed by the evidence. True per-publisher exclusion lives on the self-serve native and pop networks, not in search.
How ValidVisit detects the fraud.
Data points → one score
Every visit is weighed against more than a hundred independent data points and reduced to a single, sortable 0–100 quality score.
Many angles, combined
Each data point is combined rather than checked in isolation, so a genuine human almost never trips enough of them to be flagged — and bots that beat one rarely beat the rest.
Proprietary, not a black box
The detection model is ours and stays that way. What you get is a clear verdict on every visit — not a single brittle rule you can game, and not an unexplained number you can't act on.
Pinned to the source
Every verdict maps to the campaign, publisher and placement that sent the click — so you know exactly which source to cut.
The same 0–100 score on every source, worst first — down to the placement you buy.
Search networks, answered.
Does ValidVisit auto-exclude IPs from Google Ads?+
No. ValidVisit is detection and measurement: it scores each visit and shows you where invalid traffic concentrates, with the evidence. Acting on it — pausing a Search Partner segment, adjusting bids, or filing an invalid-click case — stays in your hands. Automated exclusion pushed into the ad platform is on the roadmap, not a current claim.
Will adding ValidVisit hurt my Quality Score or conversions?+
No. The script loads asynchronously after the page and there is nothing on the click path, so the landing-page experience and conversion/auto-tagging signals are unchanged.
Find the bots in your Search networks spend.
See which publishers and placements send real buyers vs bots — every visit scored 0–100, worst first.
Free trial at launch · just your email
One script · no cookies · no fingerprinting · raw IP never stored