Google Ads adds transparency tools to surface invalid traffic
· 19h ago · Originally reported by BetaNews
Google Ads has introduced new transparency features designed to show advertisers more information about invalid traffic affecting their campaigns. The tools aim to give buyers clearer visibility into traffic quality so they can better assess where their ads are running and how much of their spend reaches real users.
Why it matters
Invalid traffic siphons ad budgets and undermines trust in digital advertising, so giving advertisers direct visibility helps them push back on low-quality or fraudulent impressions.
Explain it like I’m new here
It's like a grocery store printing a label showing which fruits in the bag were bruised, so you know what you actually paid for.
Terms in this story
Invalid traffic (IVT)
Invalid traffic (IVT) is any impression, click or visit not coming from a real person with a genuine chance to see the ad, whether caused by bots, fraud or error.
Advertiser
An advertiser is the company, organisation or person that pays to place ads in order to sell products, build a brand, recruit, or spread a message.
Campaign
A campaign is an organised set of ads with a shared goal, budget, audience and time period, run across one or more channels and measured against defined KPIs.
Traffic quality
Traffic quality is how genuine, attentive and valuable a source of visitors or ad impressions is, combining invalid-traffic levels with signals like viewability, engagement, brand safety and conversion.
Go deeper
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