Search ad networks: click fraud & invalid traffic
Detect bot traffic and check traffic quality across search networks, with every visit judged Valid or Invalid per campaign and source.
Every search network, judged.
Pick a network for its invalid-share 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 arriving from hosting networks or automated browsers, clustered on a small set of 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 valid traffic.
What ValidVisit judges
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 reads both, so genuine searchers pass and automation stands out. The script 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 judged per visit 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 judges invalid, 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.
Scoring works the same way on every search network, and ValidVisit only reports: you make each exclusion in the network yourself. How the verdict works →
Search networks, answered.
Does ValidVisit auto-exclude IPs from Google Ads?
No. ValidVisit is detection and measurement: it judges 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. ValidVisit never pushes exclusions into the ad platform. For countries you never want, traffic rules give you a list to paste into the campaign’s location exclusions yourself.
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-network spend.
See which publishers and placements send real buyers vs bots — every visit judged Valid or Invalid, worst first.
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One script · no cookies · no device IDs · raw IP never stored