Google Ads

Stop click fraud on Google Ads

ProtectAds monitors your paid traffic in real time, blocks fake clicks from bots, competitors and click farms, and automatically excludes the offending IPs from your campaigns — including Performance Max.

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Real-time detection
Automatic IP exclusions
Performance Max

ProtectAds is a Google Partner

ProtectAds dashboard protecting Google Ads campaigns — The ProtectAds dashboard — traffic and protection at a glance

Why it matters

19% of desktop web ad clicks in North America were invalid (Pixalate, Q1 2025)

On Google Ads, every invalid click is budget spent on a visitor who will never convert. Independent data shows the scale: Pixalate’s Q1 2025 benchmarks found 19% of desktop web ad clicks in North America were invalid, while Juniper Research estimated ~22% of digital ad spend (about $84 billion) was lost to fraud in 2023 — projected to reach ~$172 billion by 2028. Pixalate, Juniper Research.

Real-time

Click scoring

Automatic

IP exclusions

PMax

Covered

Per-campaign

Reports & evidence

How we detect fraud

Four layers of detection, one verdict

Real-time detection

Dozens of signals, scored on every click

Every Google Ads click is scored the instant it lands — not in a nightly batch. ProtectAds weighs IP and subnet reputation, device and user-agent fingerprint, click timing and repetition, all together.

Real-time monitoring
User-agent & device analysis
Duplicate-click detection

Dozens of signals, scored on every click

Network protection

Blocking at the subnet level, not just one IP

Fraud rarely comes from a single address. ProtectAds analyses whole subnets and IP ranges, so a source that rotates between addresses is still caught and blocked at the network level.

Subnet & IP-range analysis
Automatic IP exclusions
Custom network rules

Blocking at the subnet level, not just one IP

Bots & click farms

Automated traffic leaves fingerprints

ProtectAds flags headless browsers, scripted bots and datacenter traffic typical of click farms before they drain your budget.

Headless browser detection
Bot & datacenter traffic
Click-farm patterns

Behaviour & competitors

Some of the costliest clicks look “real”

A competitor clicking your ad day after day uses a real browser. ProtectAds studies behaviour and repetition to surface these patterns and block them.

Behavioural analysis
Competitor detection
Custom detection rules

Some of the costliest clicks look “real”

Performance Max

Protection for your PMax campaigns too

Performance Max blends Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail and Maps into one campaign — which makes invalid traffic harder to isolate and exclude by hand. ProtectAds extends the same real-time detection and automatic IP exclusions to your Performance Max traffic, with a dedicated PMax view. Availability depends on your plan.

Protect PMax

The Performance Max view in ProtectAds — Performance Max traffic protection

The flow

From suspicious click to protected budget

It all happens automatically, in moments.

1
Click
Someone clicks your Google Ads ad and lands on your site.
2
Score
The script scores the click in real time against dozens of signals.
3
Exclude
If it’s fraudulent, the IP is added automatically to your Google Ads campaign exclusions.
4
Report
The decision is logged and explained in your dashboard, with exportable evidence.

Reporting & evidence

See exactly what was blocked, and why

Google filters some invalid clicks and issues credits where appropriate — and ProtectAds gives you the per-campaign evidence to support those reviews. (about invalid traffic — Google)

ProtectAds vs. native Google Ads protection

ProtectAds Google Ads

Real-time invalid-click detection Basic

Automatic IP exclusions you control

Custom detection rules

Per-campaign reports & evidence

Performance Max protection Limited

Frequently asked questions

How does ProtectAds protect Google Ads campaigns?

A lightweight script monitors every click coming from Google Ads, scores it in real time against dozens of signals (IP, subnet, user agent, behaviour) and, when it detects fraudulent traffic, automatically adds the offending IP addresses to your campaign exclusion lists.

Does it work with Performance Max?

Yes. Performance Max (PMax) protection is included and covers traffic coming from PMax campaigns, available depending on your plan.

Doesn’t Google already block invalid clicks?

Google filters some invalid traffic and issues credits, where appropriate, for what it detects after billing. However, native protection is limited and reactive. ProtectAds adds real-time detection, automatic IP exclusions and detailed reports you can use to support credit requests.

Will the script slow down my site?

No. The ProtectAds script is lightweight and asynchronous, so the detection work happens without slowing your pages or affecting real visitors.

Do I need technical skills to set it up?

No. You add the script via Google Tag Manager, a CMS plugin or directly in your HTML, then connect your Google Ads account. The rest happens automatically.

Stop paying for fake clicks

Turn on Google Ads protection in minutes and keep your budget on real visitors.

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