While digital ad fraud seems to get all the attention, there is another type of fake ad spend that is plaguing many marketers. This is accidental ad clicks, and it is a major issue for mobile ads. People will be interacting with sites or apps on their phones or tablets and accidently tap on an ad that they don’t actually want to see.
When this happens the user is brought to the advertiser’s page, and they typically close the page out immediately. The advertiser has to pay for the click, but they don’t get any real value out of it. Google has taken three significant steps to help fight this issue:
- No Edge of Ad Clicks – Google found that taps on the very edges of ads are typically accidental so they will no longer count. You have to tap near the center of the ad to activate it.
- No App Icon Clicks – App install ads usually have the app icon near the top with a small x to close the ad out. People would try to tap the x and hit the icon, which would activate the ad. This is no longer the case. Users will have to click the actual call to action button now.
- Ads Not Immediately Clickable – Google has also made it so the ads on mobile devices are not immediately clickable on page load. The ad must be visible for a set amount of time before they can be clicked. Google hasn’t yet said how long that is, but it is likely a couple of seconds.
These are some significant changes that will likely save brands and marketers a significant amount of money on their ad budgets. Many people don’t even realize how much of their ad budgets were getting eaten up by these accidental clicks.
