Ad stats
The stats section gives you a number of visualisations that help you to understand the nature of your invalid traffic at the campaign level. Not all stats views will be populated for all campaign types as some campaigns don't provide detailed information on the click level.
Schedule
Is an hourly heatmap that shows what time periods are suffering the highest levels of invalid traffic. This view will calculate which hour in the week the highest volumes of traffic, and invalid traffic, were experienced. You can select between a 7 day period or a 28 day period - both of these will run up to the end of the active date range selected in the main date control for the dashboard.
How to use it?
Identify larger, darker periods which equate to both high percentages of invalid traffic and high volumes. Consider adjusting the active time the campaign is running if you are experiencing high levels of invalid activity at specific times.
💡 Times in this widget are currently UTC so you will need to consider the timezone that the campaign is active in
Keyword scatter chart
A scatter chart of Keywords show the number of clicks and the levels of invalid activity for keywords that are driving the highest levels of invalid clicks. Keywords with higher levels of clicks will appear further to the right and keywords with higher IVT appear higher vertically - so look for any specific keywords or groups in the upper right area of the chart.
How to use it?
Consider refining match strategy if keywords with specific match types are driving invalid traffic for a campaign
Consider excluding specific words or types of phrase that drive high volumes of invalid activity
Identify if a competitor is targeting your use of their brand keywords to waste your spend on their search terms
💡 The traffic volume is a log scale meaning 1-10 clicks is the same size as 10-100 and so on. This allows you to still pick out patterns even when some keywords such as brand names have much higher traffic volume than everything else.
Placement scatter chart
Similarly, a scatter plot of Placements will show for display campaign placements that are yielding the highest levels of invalid traffic.
How to use it
See if specific placement types such as mobile apps are generating higher levels of invalid traffic and consider focussing away from these
Adding exclusions for particularly wasteful placements
💡 The traffic volume is a log scale meaning 1-10 clicks is the same size as 10-100 and so on. This allows you to more easily distinguish where some keywords have much higher traffic volume than others.
Networks
This shows the Google networks a campaign is running across. It will show which of the Google networks are yielding disproportionately high IVT. This chart will populate when the campaign runs on more than one Google network.
How to use it
Identify whether specific Google networks are driving higher levels of invalid traffic than others, and consider refining the campaign to target the higher value Google networks
Location
This table shows the percentage share of traffic across the countries the campaign is delivering on, as well as the percentage of invalid traffic coming from that country. This allows you to easily identify if certain countries are significant sources of invalid traffic.
How to use it
See if specific countries are appearing that shouldn't be and generating invalid traffic
If a campaign is generating higher volumes of invalid traffic in one country that isn't the main target consider excluding or targeting with separate campaigns
Categorised clicks over time
As with our main dashboards, you can see the categorised clicks over time to really help understand the shape of invalid traffic over the course of the campaign and identify if and when invalid activity may be spiking.
Use the 'Scale IVT for easier comparison' option to view invalid clicks on a separate scale to make trends more visible
Switch between click totals and percentages to track overall invalid traffic levels as your traffic volumes change
