Google Ads Bots & Spam: How to Stop It & Why It Happens

Certain types of Google Ads campaigns are known for producing bot traffic and spam leads. But there are ways to prevent it.

In this post, I explain how to stop Google Ads spam and why it happens in the first place.

What is Google Ads spam?

Google Ads spam refers to bogus form submissions and other website activity that originates from a Google Ads campaign. The spam is typically caused by bot traffic on the websites where a Google Display ad appears.

Bots are programmed to click the Display ad, then fill out forms on your landing page, resulting in bogus leads.

Why it happens

In a traditional Google Ads Search campaign, people search Google for your keywords, then click your ad to visit your website. As the advertiser, you pay Google for the click. Most of the time, this traffic is legitimate.

But that’s a Search ad – one of several ad types you can choose in Google Ads.

If you’re using a Display Ad campaign, Performance Max or if you’ve enabled the Display Network or Search Partners in a Search campaign, then there’s a much higher risk of bots clicking on your Google ads. Here’s why …

The dangers of bad traffic from Display ads

Display ads can appear on questionable, poor-quality websites that are designed for one purpose: generating fraudulent ad revenue. When your Display ad is clicked, Google charges you for the click – and the website owner earns a commission. Normally, this affiliate business model is perfectly fine. But the bogus sites use bots to produce fraudulent ad clicks, netting them a bigger paycheck.

A vicious cycle of fake conversions

Negative feedback loop of fake Google Ads conversions.

The problem worsens with Smart Bidding. That’s because this bid strategy uses machine learning to help Google know which ad placements deliver better performance. So for example, if Google sees you’re getting more conversions from a Display ad, it’s going to continue placing your ad on that same website.

But in reality, the website is bogus. The bots are trained to not only click your ad but also fill out your forms with fake information or complete other steps that are commonly tracked as conversion actions. This effectively trains Google’s Smart Bidding algorithm to send more traffic.  On Google’s end, it looks like your ads are converting well, so Google continues to show your ad on that bad site, repeating the cycle over and over.

Common signs of Google Ads bots

An example of Google Ads spam, sent via a website chat widget to the advertiser. See other common signs of spam below.

How do you know if you’re experiencing spam and bots from your Google Ads? Here are the common signs:

• Form submissions with fake information.
• Generic form responses, e.g. “I’m interested. Send more info.”
• Questionable chat conversations.
• “Add to cart” and “Checkout” events at odd times of night.
• Suspiciously high conversions from weird websites in your “Where ads showed” report.
• Email- or phone-click conversions that seemingly didn’t result in an actual email or phone call.

How to prevent Google Ads spam

1) Disable Search Network and Display Network. If you’re running a Search campaign, go to Campaign settings > Networks and unselect “Include Google search partners” and “Include Google Display Network.” This will limit your ads to appearing on Google – not the questionable websites that produce spam.

2) Use Search instead of Performance Max. Pmax is notorious for spam and bots. That’s because these campaigns use Display ads in addition to Search and other placements across Google. Performance Max can deliver strong results, but if you have a limited Google Ads budget and you’re getting spam leads, try testing a Search campaign vs. Pmax to see if your legitimate response rates increase.

3) Avoid loose conversion actions. If you must use Display ads or Pmax, be careful about adding conversion actions that are easy for bots to complete, such as email clicks, phone clicks, add to cart events and so on. If you want to track these without affecting your campaign optimization, then set these conversions to “Secondary actions” in your conversion settings. Go to Goals > Summary > Select a conversion action > Edit settings > Action optimization.

4) Add CAPTCHA to forms. CAPTCHA makes it much more difficult for bots to fill out your forms, so that these actions are only tracked as conversions when they’re legitimate leads. Tools like Google’s reCAPTCHA are generally easy to implement and free.

5) Stop using Smart campaigns. Not Smart Bidding, Smart campaigns, which are a specific campaign type that has been phased out. If you’re running an old Smart campaign, turn it off. Move that budget to Search or Pmax. Smart campaigns are a rudimentary precursor to Performance Max, but less smart and with even less visibility into performance data. Like Pmax, they incorporate Display ads, which can produce bot traffic.

6) Implement third-party fraud detection. There are several third-party tools that can monitor your website for bot traffic and block those IPs from triggering your ads. In my experience, these tools are hit or miss, so research carefully. Or, start with the strategies above, which should prevent spam for most advertisers (particularly businesses using Google Ads with a small budget).

Case study: Therapist solves weird Google Ads spam problem

A therapist in California recently contacted me for help with her Google Ads. Ordinarily, Google Ads is great for therapists who want to grow their client lists. But something was wrong here. She was getting daily form submissions with generic messages such as “Tell me more please,” and “How do I get more information?” Initially, she responded to them, but after 3 months of never hearing back, she reached out to me for help.

Sure enough, when I audited her account, the problem was immediately clear. She was using an old Google Ads Smart campaign, which was generating frequent clicks from Display ads on bogus websites. Form submissions were tracked as conversions, creating a negative feedback loop that generated more spam leads every day.

I worked with this client to transition to a new, tightly managed Search campaign. The spam leads stopped instantly, and she started receiving legitimate leads and phone calls within the first week.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Google Ads use bots?

Google Ads uses automated website crawling bots to determine the relevance and appropriateness of the websites being advertised. These crawlers are in no way related to bots used on low-quality websites to produce fraudulent clicks on Google Display ads.

2. Why do I get spam leads from Google Ads and Performance Max?

Google Ads spam is common with certain campaign types, such as Display Ads or Performance Max (which incorporates Display). This is due to the low-quality websites on Google’s Display Network that use bots to generate fraudulent ad revenue from bogus ad clicks and form submissions.

3. How do you prevent fake conversions from Google Ads?

The best way to prevent spam leads and other fake conversions on Google Ads is to disable the ad types that produce fraudulent traffic. Use Google Search Ads exclusively, not Display, Performance Max or Search Partners. Additionally, use CAPTCHA and stronger conversion actions to make it harder for bots to generate conversions.

Conclusion

Google Ads can produce bot traffic and spam leads when you use certain campaign types, such as Display Ads or Performance Max. But you can prevent these unwanted clicks by avoiding campaigns that incorporate Display Ads and making your primary conversion actions harder for bots to complete.

Stressed? Confused? Need a Google Ads buddy?

If you need help stopping spam leads from Google Ads or any other aspect of your Search campaigns, request pricing and I’ll email you a quick overview of how I can help.