Invalid AdSense Traffic

V

Vix

Administrator
Has anyone encountered having their AdSense account flagged for invalid traffic? My account states it is “under review”, which apparently is different from a suspension or ban.

I have been struggling with driving traffic to my game, which led to a one-on-one call with Google AdWords. I made the changes to my ads on Thursday and instantly saw fantastic results! However, yesterday my AdSense account was flagged for "invalid traffic", though my ads were only clicked 15 times throughout the whole day. A few years ago I would get around 200 clicks in a day, so I am very confused as to why this is happening. I do not believe this is invalid traffic since so many new players are actually engaged!

AdSense also does not have a direct line to support, so I am not sure who I would even contact for this issue. Advice?

 
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Just recently had my account flagged for invalid traffic as well within the past couple weeks. And no, they don't give any actual information as to why other than the generic, 'ads must result from genuine user interest. Publishers may not ask others to refresh or click their ads etc..'. And I've never done that, and my adblocker is applied to my site to keep myself from accidental clicks so that wasn't the case. 

I don't think there is a real solution as I don't get the impression they care. I have heard of this happening a lot to other audiences such as bloggers. And per their terms, if you have a balance when they terminate your account they don't have to give it to you either. 

I've been thinking about just getting rid of them altogether, but doesn't seem like there are a lot of alternatives either.

 
@Anoua getting rid of AdSense would really hurt our budget, so that terrifies me. But I also cannot understand why I have been flagged! I have been obsessing over my analytics, and nothing seems out of the ordinary. I am still running my AdWords because I know I need more activity regardless, but I see where all of my clicks/conversions/impressions are coming from via the Placement tab. Nearly all of my registrations are coming from logged conversions from specific websites of a similar genre ??

Are yours still limited? The limited phase is incredibly annoying since its so indefinite! I love that there's great support for AdWords, but AdSense is non-existent....clowns.

 
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Haven't had an issue with invalid traffic yet because I'm having trouble getting them to approve my site for AdSense at all. I'm hoping adding a blog for extra content will help. I hope you get this sorted out. ?

Are there any alternatives for these kinds of websites?

 
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Mine was suspended for a 30 days and will be active again mid February. I can't remember if it was in a 'review' state first or not but it's a specific timeline for me now anyway. The official reason listed is 'Invalid clicks and impressions' and then gives some of that generic language I mentioned above when you click for more information. 

For me, nothing has changed on my site recently, so what can I fix? I just feel like it's a matter of time before they do a permanent ban anyway since if there is something on my end that's wrong, I don't have any real way to fix it. And if not, I still have no recourse with them. So just feels like it's a matter of time. And I would just rather not give them a change to get free resources from my site either. Since like I mentioned as far as I know any balance you have with them at the time of the ban is forfeited. 

But I can understand not wanting to just cut them off if you can help it, especially with it being such a large part of your budget. Honestly it feels like in your case they are punishing you for getting a good return on your advertisement, which is even more frustrating when you are using Adwords. Hopefully since yours is just in review they will end up not counting it as invalid and you can continue as normal.

 
WLeonhart said:
Haven't had an issue with invalid traffic yet because I'm having trouble getting them to approve my site for AdSense at all. I'm hoping adding a blog for extra content will help. I hope you get this sorted out. ?

Are there any alternatives for these kinds of websites?
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I am unsure of any other options, unfortunately. Are they giving you any feedback regarding why your site hasn't been approved?

Anoua said:
Mine was suspended for a 30 days and will be active again mid February. I can't remember if it was in a 'review' state first or not but it's a specific timeline for me now anyway. The official reason listed is 'Invalid clicks and impressions' and then gives some of that generic language I mentioned above when you click for more information. 

For me, nothing has changed on my site recently, so what can I fix? I just feel like it's a matter of time before they do a permanent ban anyway since if there is something on my end that's wrong, I don't have any real way to fix it. And if not, I still have no recourse with them. So just feels like it's a matter of time. And I would just rather not give them a change to get free resources from my site either. Since like I mentioned as far as I know any balance you have with them at the time of the ban is forfeited. 

But I can understand not wanting to just cut them off if you can help it, especially with it being such a large part of your budget. Honestly it feels like in your case they are punishing you for getting a good return on your advertisement, which is even more frustrating when you are using Adwords. Hopefully since yours is just in review they will end up not counting it as invalid and you can continue as normal.
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How long did it take for your suspension to be announced? This really is enraging because they have 0 issues with charging me for the traffic from AdWords, but its considered "invalid" traffic on AdSense? What in the world?

Are you currently advertising anywhere on social media or AdWords? Did you setup Analytics? I feel like I will end up being banned as well despite not having invalid traffic. Maybe removing the ad from my homepage would fix it? I cannot get over how outrageous this is and how they have 0 support!

 
UPDATE!

My account is still "limited", but ads are running on the site again. I dont know if linking analytics helped, but maybe? I will think twice before going from 0 to 100 running ads in the future!

Will update next time I get any sort of correspondence from AdSense.

 
Glad you have been able to run ads again. 

I don't know how long the review period was, guessing not very long if it was separate since it was showing the 30 days pretty much right away. 

I haven't really advertised much myself recently, but I do have analytics setup. That is frustrating that you pay for AdWords and then they flag your AdSense account. It's pretty ridiculous honestly. But glad things seem to running again for you now at least. Hopefully you won't run into any further problems.

 
Gah, I’m back in the doghouse with AdSense! I have made zero changes to my ad campaign, but I have been flagged once again for invalid traffic. 
 

Maybe it’s time to rearrange my ad placement ? It had been such a great start to the month as well!

 
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