Liam Walsh
Liam is a Co-Director at Intelligency and heads up the agency's Digital Intelligence & Paid Social activity. Over the last decade, he has worked with brands from the world of sports such as Premier League clubs to entertainment such as Channel 4 and Disney.
Google has added a new Invalid Traffic Overview Card to Google Ads, giving advertisers a clearer view of how the platform protects their budgets from fake or low-quality activity. Announced on 12th November by Keerat Sharma, Google’s VP and General Manager of Ads Privacy and Safety, the card makes visible something that has always happened behind the scenes. For any business paying for clicks, that transparency is worth understanding.
What Is Invalid Traffic and Who Pays for It?
Invalid traffic is activity that does not come from a genuine potential customer, such as bots or accidental and deliberate fake clicks. Google states that it does not charge advertisers for this activity, and that its defences are designed to catch it before billing takes place. When invalid activity is identified after the event, Google says it issues a credit where appropriate and possible. Until now, advertisers had little visibility of this.
What the New Card Shows
The Overview Card displays two things: the amount Google has saved you by blocking invalid traffic, and the automatic credits issued for invalid activity found later. Google also reports that continuous system upgrades have delivered an average 30% reduction in advertiser exposure to invalid leads so far in 2026. That figure is Google’s own, best read as an average rather than a promise for your account. Google adds that it keeps strengthening its defences as bad actors become more sophisticated.
What You Should Do Next
Google has not published formal advice, but the sensible first step is simple: open the card in your account and review it. Look at how much has been blocked and credited, then compare that with the quality of the enquiries and sales you receive. If leads look poor, with repeated junk form fills or unusual spikes in clicks, raise it with your agency or Google support. The card is a useful window into Google’s protections, but it does not replace your own regular checks on lead quality.
