What Is Invalid Traffic? Types, Causes and How to Stay Safe
By Adsonmarket Editorial Team ·
Invalid traffic (IVT) is any impression or click that doesn't come from a real, interested person. Networks filter it automatically — but a high share can still put an account at risk.
Two types
Industry standards split IVT into two groups.
General IVT
Known crawlers and data-center traffic, easily filtered.
Sophisticated IVT
Bots that imitate humans, hijacked devices and incentivised clicks.
Common causes
Purchased traffic, auto-refreshing pages, encouraging clicks, and testing your own ads.
Staying safe
Never click your own ads, avoid traffic exchanges, and don't place ads where they can be clicked by accident.
Example
The auto-refresh trap
A live-score site refreshed every 30 seconds, generating impressions nobody saw. Switching to refreshing only the score widget cleared the warnings.
Step-by-step
- Review traffic sources
- Remove auto-refresh on ad pages
- Stop paid traffic you can't verify
- Contact support if warnings persist
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FAQs
Can I click my own ads to test them?
No. Use the network's preview tools instead.