How to ask Google to refund invalid clicks [and what to expect next]

First, let's check. You're here because you've been sent the world's most useless clicks by Google, and you want your money back? You're in the right place.

Before you get angry at Google (well, more angry), just consider this. Google handles 6.3m searches every single minute. It's a literal firehose of data coming at them. So as much as they want to stop fraud, let's just say, it's tricky.

Now, assuming your log files are not growing at the rate of 6.3m a minute, it's understandable that you've spotted a problem where Google hasn't.

For this very situation, Google offer to investigate each case of click fraud you take to them. Here's what they say on their Ads Traffic Quality page:

“Because no filter is perfect, we also manually review issues flagged by our advertisers, publishers, and automated systems.”

The bad news is they don't exactly make it easy for advertisers to "flag issues". But never fear, we'll walk you through each and every step to give you the best possible chance at prizing your hard earned cash out of Google's cold (not evil) hands.

Let's get started...

Check the invalid clicks column

You may not know this, but Google does refund clicks automatically when it finds problems. There are a couple of places that these automated refunds will appear in your account.

Don't expect them to jump out and wave at you, they're buried well away and you'll have to do a little digging.

The first is the "invalid clicks" column. It will come as no surprise that this column shows how many of the clicks reported in the same period are invalid.

Important: You'll only see this column at campaign level.

If you don't already see it on your campaign level view in Google Ads, you'll need to add the column (click the link for step-by-step instructions from Google).

The column you'll need is right under Performance, and is called Invalid clicks.

Now that you can see the Invalid clicks column, compare the number of clicks to invalid clicks on the day that you saw the click fraud. If Google have already credited the bad traffic, you may not need to go any further.

Note that if Google identify the click fraud fast enough, the clicks won't reach your bill. But if it takes a few days or even a few months for clicks to show up in this column, they'll show up as a credit to your bill.

These refunded clicks are the next thing we'll take a look at...

See refunded clicks

So, billed invalid clicks, usually those that Google finds days or months after the click, will show up as credits on your bill.

1. In your Google Ads account, click the Billing icon
2. Click Summary.

Any invalid interaction credits that you've received will be labelled Invalid clicks under the Spend > Adjustments drop-down within the cards showing your spend each month.

Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to tie those credits back to actual activity, so you may still think it's worthwhile asking Google to investigate further. It can't do any harm.

Another useful bit of information — invalid impressions in your account won't affect the CTR used for determining your keyword's Quality Score. So it's always good to see credits on your bill and in the invalid clicks column.

Gather up the info you need

Since you're still reading, it's likely you've had no joy finding those rogue clicks in the invalid clicks column or on your bill. Let's proceed and get the investigation started.

Remember we said Google are handling 6.3m searches a minute? That means they need a lot of specific info from you to even find the clicks you're going to report to them. And of course, you need to show them why you think there's a problem.

This is what you'll need to pull together:

Customer ID

You'll find this in your account (click your profile picture at the top tight). Of course this should be the customer ID for the account where fraudulent clicks were charged. Don't use a manager (MCC) customer ID.

Date range of activity

Google only investigate activity within the last 60 days. Choose as small a window as possible that covers all the fraudulent clicks you found.

Campaign name, ad group name, and/or the keyword

If you have these details, Google do ask you to provide them. If you don't have them, we assume they'll still be able to investigate regardless.

Domain name of the publisher

If the activity comes from the display network or search partner (not unheard of 🙄), then the domain name where the click came from (the referrer) is useful too.

Summary of problem

Give a very short summary of what you've found and why you’re suspicious. Keep it VERY short. It's actually worth repeating the source of the clicks here too, i.e. Shopping, Search, Display, etc.

Here are some short templates/examples to give you an idea:

Example 1
We received many identical clicks (IP address is the same) from a shopping ad, and it doesn't appear they have been fully picked up as invalid clicks.

Example 2
Please investigate the reported clicks on display ads, they come from an IP that is not in our country, and we did not see the expected activity on the site (such as conversions).

Example 3
The reported clicks look suspicious because they come from a known VPN IP address, all came in from the same keyword, and all in a very short space of time.

IP addresses, or subnets

The IP address, or even the subnets, of suspicious clicks. A subnet is a partial IP address. The subnet address for 192.168.123.132 could be expressed as 192.168.123.XXX. Then clicks that come from 192.168.123.132, 192.168.123.133, or 192.168.123.134 could be found (note only the last part of the IP address changes).

GCLID

The GCLID is the Google Click Identifier. It's sent with every click, as long as you add it to your final URLs or have auto-tagging enabled. It's pretty important that you send Google this, or it will be a lot more difficult for them to find the clicks you want investigated.

User agent

A user agent is how the device/browser of the person clicking the ad identifies themselves. If you have it, it will do no harm to send it. It's not likely to be a field they definitely need.

How to collect this data

You won't find all of the above info in Google Analytics. In fact, very few analytics tools will provide everything. Many analytics products mask the IP address, for example.

A better place to look is your server logs. Everything should be there, but you may need to slice and dice it a little to pull everything together.

This is a good time to mention click fraud prevention software such as our own, Hitprobe. Although it won't help you this time (and we don't want to rub it in!), if you set up click fraud protection now, the next time you need to report invalid clicks, you'll have all the above info readily available.

Even better, good click fraud software can block a lot of invalid traffic before you're even billed for it. Take a look and consider it.

Submit the refund request

Nearly there now. At time of writing, Google's link to report click fraud just redirects customers in an endless loop between 2 pages. Neither of which are the one you'll need.

What you'll actually want is the Click Quality Form. Enter all the info you've collected into this form, and submit.

Then wait. And wait a little longer. It does seem to take a while.

What to expect from here?

On the subject of how long it will take to investigate your issue, Google itself says:

“Because we look at such a large number of data points, it may take several days to complete the investigation into your account.”

But several days could actually mean anything. In our experience here at Hitprobe, we've seen Google take from a few weeks up to several months to decide whether they're going to refund the clicks or not, and even then, it's possible you'll be offered a lowball starting offer. Always better to pushback if you're confident you've not got what you paid for (genuine clicks).

Let's take a look at what other Google Ads advertisers have to say about getting their invalid clicks investigated. This should give us an even better idea.

This Reddit user saw an influx of invalid clicks:

Although the OP never reported back on the eventual outcome, they reported they'd been waiting at least a couple of weeks.

Another Reddit user was looking for advice on submitting the click quality form. Here's what they said:

In the discussion on this thread, one of the commenters says:

“I got one big one a bit ago [a refund], it was for three months worth and they undercut you on paying you back anyways, you've really got to spell it out and persistent with google as they do have tenancy of ignoring or just forgetting.”

With someone else adding:

“... provide all the details you have in your request for refund. They may ask for additional proof. It can take months to get the refund.”

Here's a similar discussion:

And finally, here's another Reddit user who is asking for advice on what will happen next after reporting click fraud to Google:

One of the comments on this thread said:

“i have gotten a refund. but it took a lot of back and forth, total time frame was 4 months.”

And another reported that they:

“Get refunds for invalid clicks every month. So you have search partners and display turned on? Those tend to be lower quality or bot traffic”

That final comment is a great bit of advice, most of the time it's best just to switch Search Partner traffic off altogether.

Fraud protection for the future

So hopefully, you've now submitted your invalid clicks report. Your next step really should be to take a look at Hitprobe. Not all click fraud software is the same, but we can vouch for ours.

You'll only spend maybe 5-10 minutes setting it up, and thereafter you'll unlock these great benefits:

• Track every click with all the info we've discussed above and much more. If it's knowable, you'll see it. IP address, device fingerprint, GCLID, campaign details, where the click came from. Plus lots more.
• We monitor for many risks automatically and respond in real-time by blocking IP addresses, networks, devices, and referrer domains that are bringing you pointless, wasteful traffic.
• Dig into fraud analytics that will let you spot the dark trends that are affecting your PPC budgets. See the keywords that are attracting bad traffic. See the countries that your clicks are really coming from.

Thank you so much for reading our Google Ads Fraud Advisor article on requesting refunds for invalid clicks. Good luck with your campaigns!