How to Fix AdMob Invalid Traffic / Activity

What is up app nation? It is Steve P young founder of Appmasters.com. The place you go when you want action pack, content related to helping you grow your app downloads, and more importantly, those revenues. And today I've got a topic that a lot of questions have come in asking. This particular question it's Hey, my ADMob has been suspended. It's been banned. What are some things that you can do? So you don't fall into this trap?

It's a common thing that has happened. And I brought on an expert because I don't know everything. That's why I love this. I love doing what I do because I don't know everything. And I could bring on expert guests to really answer your questions. So without further ado, it is Sid Gupta. He is the co-founder at, AppBroda. They are Google's channel partner with demand of ADX advertising. They're gonna really help you grow your ECPM and obviously your ad revenues in return.

So what that further. SId to the video. Hey Steve, how you doing now? Let's talk about the main reason and I'm sure a lot of people, I I've been reading a lot of blogs. I'm on a lot of Reddit, uh, groups. I read that most account suspensions happen because of invalid activity. Now, uh, Google defines invalid activity in a couple of ways. Uh, I'll try and cover each one of them and we'll see how you can sort of avoid it or what you can do to ensure that you can get your account restored.

Now, when your account gets suspended because of invalid activity, you still have 30 days to ensure, uh, you get your account, uh, activated. Now in those 30 days, uh, obviously in case of invalid activity, Google does not give you the chance to make an appeal, but it still gives you a chance to make changes in our account and Ensures that manual intervention as well as pattern recogni. It is happening in our account on a daily basis to ensure if they find any other flaws so that they can restore the account.

Now, if you think about patent recognition, uh, you have to understand the core KPIs that they're trying to study. Right? Uh, let's pick the biggest one, which is, uh, clicks. Now when Google is trying to understand, uh, an issue with their account, there is a pattern that they've recognized. Uh, there are four or five KPIs that they primarily look at. And again, this is a very basic understanding of it. You can always, there are multiple KPIs that Google evaluates, uh, but the four or five KPIs that you can yourself sort of evaluate, uh, first are clicks.

Uh, the second is downloads. The thought is ad requests. These are three very important KPIs that you should be continuously tracking if your account gets suspended because of invalid activity. Now, the first thing that you should look at is understanding if, uh, how you've implemented your ads. Now, one thing which, uh, we sort of, sometimes when you're in the process of releasing an app, uh, we end up doing a lot of testing.

And a lot of times our internal teams are testing that app ourselves. Uh, in those times, Google has become extremely. Because the amount of, uh, sessions or ad requests or impressions that are happening in the account are really, really less. And if the team is testing during that time, the number of clicks recorded during that time for, from the same IP or the same user are extremely high because of which there is a very, very high chance your account might get suspended because of invited activity.

So please, please ensure you use test ads, always when you're doing this, if, uh, this is the case, you ensure that the next testing that you do ensure you do it only, only on test ads. That's the first thing that you can try and do. The second thing, uh, always happens is if Google sees there is a pattern in the amount of clicks. Uh, so if there is an extremely high CTR or if Google feels that there are same repeated users who are doing, uh, those.

Now to do this, there are a couple of things that you can try and do. Uh, the first thing is where you're getting your advertise, where you're getting your users from now. Usually what happens is then I'm sure you guys have a couple of sources. It was always recommended to limit down the number of, uh, sources that you're going with. If usually Google or Facebook are recommended in terms of going for the advertiser, we'd recommend that you lower down your budget massively and limited to a very small.

And ensure you only limited to trustworthy sources, trustworthy countries who only target countries that you feel have really genuine traffic. If you're targeting tier three tier or four countries, please remove them out of your, uh, targeting. The second thing, which is very important is limit the ads on your app. Uh, the idea is during the 30 day phase, when, uh, Google is assessing your account, uh, you need to ensure it does not have a single pattern that, uh, seems out of place.

So we recommend that you limit the ads on your app, clean your app as much as possible limit the ads as much as possible. Right. Uh, the other thing which is also very, very critical is, and this is a very common problem, and I'm sure again, this is something. Red and a lot of blogs, uh, is, uh, a lot of times your competitors trying to get and ban your app. This is also very common concern, right? So what we would recommend is use fire base and limit the ads per user, uh, put enough frequency capping there and ensure the number of ads you show per users limited to one or two.

Uh, reduce the frequency to such a level. So that such fraud is also voided. So that in, during those 30 days, there is no possibility of such things. Now, uh, the other thing, uh, there also is a very problem is accidentally cleaned, accidental clicks. Uh, accidental clicks is another area where, uh, There's a possibility that the ad experience that you've built within your app might not be the cleanest possible. Like, uh, we, uh, there is a user flow.

That's going through users, still learning the ropes of your app. He's trying to understand the, the, what the app does or what the game does. And a lot of times, because the user does not understand, he's learning about the app experience. He ends up clicking on the wrong place and eventually goes to an ad and then goes. So this Google counts as accidental clicks. So imagine if I'm playing a game and I end up clicking on an ad, which I did not want to go to.

The first reaction would be to go back. And if this is a pattern that emerges out of a lot of percentage, large percentage of your users, Google automatically considers this as accidental clicks and it essentially inva traffic. So try and identify those spots where, uh, you might get action clicks and remove those placements ASAP. These are three very, very important PA ways to ensure that you clean up your app experience and remove any invalid click activity for which can result into a high CT or a pattern in CTR that would result for Google.

To suspend your account. Now, the second thing, uh, which usually people don't think about is the content. Uh, now, uh, people always come to me and say, uh, is an more separate Google play policy, separate, uh, if Google play is approved, my go account app to be on Google play. Why is content a problem? But that's not the case. Uh, ADMO and Google player are very, very closely, uh, related when you start looking at policies.

It might not be the fact that Google play has caught the policy issue, but AMO might cast that policy as a content issue and essentially bans you from AMO first. This is a very common way that AMO works now. Uh, there is a very, very large data set as to what, uh, Can lead to content violations, but I'll try and cover a few of them. Right. And, uh, again, we'll try and cover some of them. Uh, what we'll do is also after the call, I'll share a couple of links, uh, with Steve and maybe he can share it, uh, in the description so that you guys can go through it yourself.

There's a very, very long list in terms of content violations, which result in app suspension. Uh, Google account, Google play suspension, uh, sorry. I mob suspension. Now it did. So just to interrupt here, when you're talking about content, you're talking about content within the app, like I'm the app owner, I'm the app developer and there's certain content within my app. That's causing this to, with Adal, that's causing an issue with ad.

Correct. Okay. Got it. All right. And I will link all that up into the YouTube description below as well. All right. Take it away. SI. Great. So, uh, exactly Steve, uh, we essentially sometimes, uh, it, it seems fairly obvious that if Google players approve my app by word avoid sort of block me. But again, rerating, that's not the case. Google might block your ad mob and might never remove you from Google play. So you've got to ensure your content is always in sync with the policies that are there right now, the first and the most important thing.

Uh, a lot of developers miss out is the, uh, is the H gate. It is extremely important that the users know what age you're targeting. Google knows what age group you're targeting at now. Uh, Google's recent update on, uh, age. Uh, it clearly says that if you're targeting kids, which are below the age of 13, There are a lot of declarations that you have to do. Now, if you're targeting below the age of the 13 years old, you cannot collect their data in any way.

That's fairly, fairly, fairly simple that you should make sure. So ensure that you are targeting users below the age of 13, please do not collect their data. Try and limit as much as possible. And if you have to really have to try and justify within the app experience, please understand the person who's going to be actually, uh, evaluating your account at the end of the day is not going to have a lot of time to actually go through your app, understand what you're trying to sell.

They will just go through it really quickly and give a decision based on that. So you have to make sure the person sitting on the other side of the, uh, um, in the policy team does not have too much time. So you wanna ensure everything is in sync and there is not even a single thing that might seem out of place. So aids gating is a really important parameter. You have to ensure that, uh, your aids G if it's below 13, please do not collect any data.

And again, if you collect, ensure you. Uh, give enough hooks, uh, within the app to, uh, give users the information as to why you're collecting that information. Right? The second thing, even if it's below 13 or above 13, if you are collecting data, make sure you outline why you're collecting that data. A lot of times, uh, apps sort of D capture mobile numbers, capture, email addresses, capture location, but there are features that are there.

We a very small part of the app. They might not be required for the full functioning of the app. And that a lot of times causes your app to get suspended because, um, your account gets suspended because when somebody's charging, the app does not see any value. So ensure at the very beginning of the account, clearly state what's value. You're going to be giving by collecting that data or try and prevent collecting that data till you reach that point where you need that feature.

So very important in your app design. Uh, the third thing, which is also fairly important is a lot of times we use iframes as a part of our app strategy. We might frame some content and bring it to. App now during that time, another thing that, uh, sometimes we miss is that we are also responsible for the eye frame content that's available in our app. A lot of times, uh, we pull webpages, we pull video content from other sources and we are responsible for that content as well.

So if there is any adult content, if there's any pornographic, Content, if there is any violent content, if there is any content, um, we sort of, uh, hate hate crimes, hate speech. A lot of times Google will ban your account because of that. Now, uh, another very interesting thing is how you call your ads. A lot of times we are, we are very eager to understand experiment different format. How we can show ads, right? Uh, one thing that I've seen and native ads become a really, really popular way to sort of integrate your ad experience.

But if your native ad experience looks very, very similar to your content, Google, uh, that's against Google's policy. So if you are showing, uh, dialogue box or, um, uh, notification or. Your native a looks very, very similar to the content and an individual who sitting on the other side cannot distinguish between the ad and the content that would also lead to policy violation. Sorry, your account getting suspended.

So that's another reason that you should look at your content and ensure it's right. Uh, uh, another very interesting thing that, uh, people sort of miss is the unexpected clicks. Right? Another thing that I, I forgot to mention during accident clicks is during the app design, uh, we Devi, we design the app for a lot of, uh, we might have a functionality which might have a transparent background, and there might be a little bit of overlap between the ad and the.

In some of those devices, when the user clicks, it might lead to an accidental click. There's another very, very common occurrence in a lot of cases that we help developers with where, uh, because of a transparent background, uh, the user clicks on the ad by mistake and it leads so a lot of accidental clicks. So try and ensure your ad boundaries and your content boundaries are very, very clearly defined and very segregated.

So there can never be an overlap in any. Uh, that's extremely, extremely important. Uh, another thing that's extremely important is you cannot place ads directly lead to an ad, uh, on any navigation button. Uh, and this is something that a lot of people experiment with. If you click on the next button, if you click on the back button, uh, if you click on, um, uh, an icon, it should not lead to an ad. This again is against Google ads policy.

Uh, now another very important thing is the back. And , it's a very understated policy, but in the content. Uh, if you're looking at the overall content of your app, the bag button plays an extremely important part in your app's design. The bag button allows smooth navigation for the developer, uh, for the user to go and back for, to go, come back from any screen. If in any case the user ends in a timeless loop, or if the back button is not working in any functionality in any, uh, Google considers that as a content violation.

And that again, might lead to your account getting suspend. Uh, now while having said that, uh, this is, again, there are bunch of other content, uh, guidelines, and we are more than happy to share with you. Uh, but I think there's a very, very long list. And we'll take you through all of them. Uh, I think it's best that you can go through all of them and understand what it is. And if you've got any doubts, you guys can come to us and we can help you clarify or find exactly what's wrong with your app.

Right. Uh, the final thing, which is supremely important is the ad experience. Right, uh, in the ad experience and I'm sure there are general policy guidelines. A lot of you have already read understood. There are two, three things that I'd like to cover, uh, which lead to violations, especially for apps, which are just starting off. Uh, it is, uh, and this is something that a lot of developers sort of think about when they're trying to design their app in their initial phase of their app.

They try and integrate ads at the very start of the experience. Right? And that is the time where Google has a very hawkish eye on what you're trying to do, what value you're trying to provide to the user. At that point of time, you will do a lot of iterations within our app to ensure the functionality that you finally want to drive to ensure retentions in plain in your app that, uh, works out in such a scenario. A lot of times we put ads at experiences or a, we build ag.

That might not be the most suitable. Uh, let me give you a few examples, any ad experience or an interstitial ad or a video ad or a rewarded ad that comes at the start of a functionality. So for example, if I'm starting a game and at the start of the game, I have an interstitial ad or a rewarded ad. At that point of time, the user's not expecting any interstitial ad he's expecting to start the game. He's expected to join the functionality he's expected to scan, um, uh, uh, an image if it's a PDF, a scanner.

So at that point of time, if you put an interstitial or rewarded ad or a video ad, That is against policy. Again, another reason for your account to get deactivated. Another very common concern is when you put, uh, uh, interstitial ad from the click of a button, when the app first opens up, if you put an interstitial app right there, that's also against, uh, ad policy. Google is actually, uh, Google realizes is an extremely good monetization opportu.

For users, uh, for developers and hence they've actually launched a new format called app open. So the right strategy would be to replace your interstitial with an app open app. Uh, if you want to read more about app open, you can read more. You're more than again, uh, welcome to come reach out us and we can help you understand how the experience should be. Love it. All right. Anything that we missed that you wanna make sure we cover it?

I think we are covered. All right. Awesome. Well guys, it is appbroda.com. Go check them out. They're gonna really look at your app. If you've been suspended, they'll help you out. But they're also what they're really, really good at is helping you earn more money from your ad revenue. And that's because they have access to Google's new platform that you really need a special invite to called Google ADX. And they're gonna really level.

Your ad revenue by tapping into Google's ad inventory through Google ad X, you wanna learn more? All you gotta do is go to appbroda.com. Use any of the links that I put into the description below. But once again, it is appbroda.com. Sid. Is there anything else you wanna make sure that they know from that again, reach out to us for any issues. We are more than happy to help you find solutions. Awesome. And join us for our next video, where we're gonna talk about how you can really increase your ECPM.

Once again, it is appbroda.com and I'll see you on the next video.