Clicks on paid search listings that aren’t genuine are known as 'invalid clicks'. There are a number of known causes of invalid clicks including fraudulent activity (click fraud) but the usual cause is user error.
All search engines operating within the UK have a zero tolerance to invalid clicks and will not bill advertisers for clicks that are known to be invalid. They all continuously improve their processes to tackle invalid clicks and protect advertisers.

• What is an invalid click?
• What causes an invalid click?
• How do search engines protect advertisers from invalid clicks?
• How do invalid clicks affect reporting and billing?
• What do I do if I have been affected by invalid clicks not identified by the search engine?
• Why is there a difference between my campaign reports and the search engine’s?
• Useful links

What is an invalid click?

Each of the search engines define invalid clicks slightly differently but essentially it is a click to a paid search advert that is not genuine.

What causes an invalid click?

Invalid clicks can occur for a number of different reasons including:

• Accidental manual clicks - consumer error can lead to a link being clicked twice without any malicious intent. E.g. if a page doesn’t load immediately, they may click twice.

• Intentional manual clicks - people can click on a link multiple times intentionally to increase the cost to the advertiser.

• Automated clicks - by robots, programmes that carryout a single task, in this case clicking on links.

How do search engines protect advertisers from invalid clicks?

All search engines have processes in place to protect advertisers from the causes of invalid clicks. These processes are:

• Paid advert areas of the page are able to block robots.

• Every click made to a paid advert is monitored to identify unusual click activity, such as multiple clicks from the same IP address.

• User search patterns are monitored with unusual activity compared against genuine search behaviour.

• Campaign performance data is used to identify invalid clicks.

• On top of the standard systems, all search engines have advanced systems in place to identify unusual patterns. None of the search engines offer information about these systems to maintain their effectiveness.

Finally teams are on hand that specialise in invalid clicks to analyse all activity by hand using their own tools and processes.

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How do invalid clicks affect reporting and billing?

All of the search engines adopt a similar, straightforward and open approach to reporting and billing for invalid clicks. They all report the number of identified invalid clicks to show advertisers and they do not bill for them.

What do I do if I have been affected by invalid clicks not identified by the search engine?

There are a number of steps you must follow if you believe you have been affected by invalid clicks when the search engines have not picked them up:

1. Check and investigate yourself by analysing the search engine reports and your own logs to identify clicks you feel are invalid.

2. Contact the search engine invalid click teams – all search engines have contact forms within their invalid click information pages [link to table above] and specialised teams to deal with enquiries.

Why is there a difference between my campaign reports and the search engine’s?

Be aware that like all internet measurement systems, a discrepancy can be caused when two systems are employed for reporting. Discrepancy is often caused by the third party server going down while the search engine’s is still live or when a user accesses a page that has been cached in their browser.

Useful links

• Google’s invalid clicks policy

• Microsoft adCenter invalid click policy

• Yahoo!’s click fraud FAQ

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