Invalid Traffic: What It Is and How to Protect Your Ad Account

Invalid traffic (IVT) is the fastest way to lose an ad account. It is also one of the most common reasons a publisher is turned down for MCM. Here is what counts, who is responsible and how to protect yourself.

What counts as invalid traffic

Google defines invalid traffic as clicks or impressions that could artificially inflate advertiser costs or publisher earnings. It covers deliberate fraud and accidental activity. Examples include:

• Clicking your own live ads
• Repeated clicks or impressions from the same users
• Asking or rewarding people to click or view ads
• Bots, automated clicking tools and deceptive software

Who is responsible

Google is clear that the publisher is ultimately responsible for traffic quality, even when the bad traffic came from a partner or a paid campaign. High IVT can lead to limited ad serving, suspension or closure.

Why it matters even more in MCM

In MCM, your traffic quality also reflects on the parent network. That is why H&T GAMING's published criteria reject bot, proxy or any other invalid traffic outright and remove publishers who send it.

Practical protection steps

1. Segment your reports. Break revenue down by ad unit, site and country so unusual spikes stand out.
2. Watch analytics. Look for sudden jumps in sessions with very short visits or one country you do not target.
3. Vet traffic sellers. If you buy traffic, use known platforms and avoid pop-under, autosurf or paid-to-click networks.
4. Never click your own ads. Use preview tools or test ad units instead, as Google explains in its clicks policy.
5. Separate test environments. Keep staging sites off live ad tags.
6. Act fast. If you spot a bad source, pause it and document what you did.

If ad serving is limited

Google may limit serving while it assesses traffic quality, usually for less than 30 days. During that time, direct and house campaigns still run. Use the period to audit your traffic channels and review the Policy center.

How H&T GAMING helps

H&T GAMING describes layered IVT protection on its site, including bot detection, traffic scoring and daily audits. The company also builds GAM Sentinel, a monitoring platform that flags quality issues across MCM child accounts.

Traffic quality is one of the four areas a reviewer checks before approving any account, so if you are unsure where yours stands you can have it reviewed for free.