Google filters the vast majority of invalid clicks before they ever reach your bill. What this guide covers is the rest: the clicks that slipped through, got billed, and that you now believe were bots, competitors, or click farms. Google gives you a formal path to dispute those. It also gives you very little guidance on how to write a dispute that actually wins.
That is the gap here. Our invalid-click credits guide covers the full process, the 60-day window, and the new Invalid Activity Credit Report. This post is the practical companion: what to write, field by field, and what to do next.
What Google Asks For (and Why Each Field Matters)
Google's invalid traffic guidance lists six pieces of data to gather before you submit. Reviewers are checking whether your evidence lines up with a pattern their own systems recognize as invalid, so each field is doing a job:
Two rules from the process worth repeating: only a user with admin access to the payments profile can submit the form, and you generally get one investigation request per account per 60 days. Batch your evidence into one strong claim rather than firing off several thin ones.
Before You Write: Confirm the Pattern
A dispute is only as good as the pattern behind it. Spend 20 minutes on these checks first; the answers become the "trend evidence" section of your template.
- Clicks up, conversions flat. Pull the affected date range and compare against the previous 30 days. A click spike with no matching conversion movement is the core signal.
- Repeat sources. In your server logs or click tracking, look for the same IPs or tight IP ranges hitting the same ads repeatedly.
- Odd timing. Clicks clustered at 2 to 5 a.m. local time, or in perfectly regular intervals, point to automation.
- Wrong geography. Clicks from regions you do not target or serve. See our guide on clicks from other countries for how to separate spoofed traffic from a targeting setting.
- Zero engagement. Sessions under a few seconds, no scroll, no second page, high bounce concentrated on the paid landing page.
- Concentration on expensive terms. Bots and rivals both aim where clicks cost the most.
If three or more of these line up, you have a case. If none do, you may still have wasted spend, but a dispute will not recover it, and your energy is better spent on the detection guide.
The Template: Copy, Fill, Submit
Paste this into the "trend evidence" or explanation section of the Click Quality Form and attach your logs. Replace everything in brackets. Keep it factual and specific; reviewers respond to numbers, not adjectives.
Subject: Invalid traffic investigation request, Customer ID [XXX-XXX-XXXX]
Customer ID: [XXX-XXX-XXXX]
Date range: [YYYY-MM-DD] to [YYYY-MM-DD]
Campaigns affected: [Campaign name(s)]
Ad groups affected: [Ad group name(s)]
Suspicious keywords: [keyword 1], [keyword 2], [keyword 3]
Summary of the pattern:
Between [start date] and [end date], the campaigns above received [N] clicks
against a 30-day daily average of [M]. Conversions over the same window were
[flat / down X%], and cost rose [Y%]. The increase is concentrated on the
keywords listed above.
Evidence attached (server logs, [date range]):
- [N] clicks from [IP address / range], repeated across [X] days
- [N] clicks between [hour] and [hour] local time, outside our normal traffic hours
- [N] clicks from [region/country] which is outside our targeted locations
- Average session duration for these clicks: [X seconds], versus a site
average of [Y seconds]; [Z%] had no page interaction
- GCLIDs, IPs, and user agents for every affected click are in the attached
log export
Request:
Please investigate the clicks in this window for invalid activity and apply
credit for any clicks confirmed invalid. I am the account admin on the
payments profile. Contact: [name, email].
A few notes on using it well:
- One tight date range beats one wide one. If the spike ran from the 3rd to the 9th, say that, not "the last two months."
- Attach the logs; do not describe them. Export the access log or click-tracking data for the window as a CSV. Include timestamp, IP, user agent, GCLID, landing URL, and session duration where you have it.
- Quantify every claim. "Lots of clicks from one IP" is an opinion. "214 clicks from 203.0.113.0/24 across 6 days" is evidence.
- Skip the accusation. Even if you suspect a specific competitor, name the pattern, not the person. Reviewers evaluate traffic, not motives, and an unproven accusation adds nothing.
A Worked Example
Here is what a filled-in claim looks like for a small home-services advertiser:
Customer ID: 123-456-7890
Date range: 2026-07-14 to 2026-07-20
Campaigns affected: Search - Emergency Plumbing
Ad groups affected: Burst Pipe, Water Heater Repair
Suspicious keywords: emergency plumber near me, 24 hour plumber, water heater repair
Summary of the pattern:
Between July 14 and July 20, the campaign received 612 clicks against a 30-day
daily average of 41 (about 287 expected for the week). Conversions were flat
at 9 versus 11 the prior week. Cost rose 118%. 74% of the extra clicks landed
on the three keywords above.
Evidence attached (server logs, July 14 to 20):
- 188 clicks from 198.51.100.0/24, repeated across all 7 days
- 143 clicks between 01:00 and 04:00 local time; our normal share for that
window is under 4%
- 96 clicks geolocated outside our two targeted counties
- Average session duration for flagged clicks: 3 seconds, versus a site
average of 74 seconds; 91% recorded no scroll or interaction
- Full log export attached: 612 rows with timestamp, IP, user agent, GCLID,
landing URL, and session duration
Request:
Please investigate the clicks in this window for invalid activity and apply
credit for any confirmed invalid clicks. I am the account admin on the
payments profile. Contact: Dana Ortiz, dana@example.com.
Notice what makes this work: every sentence has a number, the date range is a single week, and the logs back every claim. That is the standard to hit.
What Happens After You Submit
Google says the review typically takes several business days because of the volume of data involved, and you receive the outcome by email. Three outcomes are common:
Credits show up against your account balance, not as a payout. To see the breakdown by campaign, use the Invalid Activity Credit Report in Report Editor, which our credits guide walks through.
When the Claim Is Denied
"No invalid activity found" is the outcome advertisers dread, and it is more common than the approval rate most people expect. It does not mean your traffic was clean. It means the evidence did not cross Google's threshold. Work through these before you give up:
- Was the date range tight? Wide windows bury the spike in normal traffic. Resubmit around the peak days only.
- Were the logs complete? A claim without IPs, user agents, and GCLIDs is asking the reviewer to take your word for it. Get the export.
- Did you show repetition? One bad day is noise. Same IPs across several days, or the same hour-of-day cluster on repeat, is a pattern.
- Did you separate real causes? A new competitor bidding on your terms raises clicks legitimately. A "Presence or interest" location setting brings in out-of-area searchers. Both look like fraud and are not. Rule them out and say so.
- Was it actually sophisticated? Some invalid traffic is engineered to pass every filter, including Google's. If yours came through residential proxies, Google may genuinely be unable to confirm it. That is a reason to block it yourself, not to keep filing.
If you find gaps, rebuild the file and submit again once the per-account interval allows. If the file was already strong, stop spending time on recovery and shift to prevention. That is the honest ceiling on disputes: they recover some of the past, and only when Google agrees.
Why Prevention Beats Disputes
Even a successful dispute has three costs the credit never covers. The clicks already trained your Smart Bidding on fake engagement, so your CPA drifted for weeks. Your budget was exhausted on the days it happened, so real customers saw no ad. And you spent hours building a file for a credit that arrives, at best, as a fraction of the loss.
The structural fix is to stop the clicks before they are billed. Two layers do most of the work:
- What Google gives you. IP exclusions for proven repeat offenders (up to 500 per campaign), tighter location settings, and shared exclusion lists so new campaigns launch protected. Useful, free, and limited by how fast you can update them.
- Independent real-time protection. Scoring every click as it happens, recognizing repeat devices even when the IP rotates, pushing exclusions to your account automatically, and keeping the click-level evidence trail your next dispute needs. ClickFortify's blocking and evidence export were built for exactly this loop, so the log export in the template above is one click instead of an afternoon. See how ClickFortify works.
The strongest position is both at once: file disputes for what got through, and make sure less gets through next month.
The Bottom Line
You can dispute invalid clicks in Google Ads, and you should when the pattern is real. But the process rewards preparation, not frustration. Confirm the pattern, tighten the date range, export the logs, fill the template with numbers, and submit as the payments admin inside the 60-day window. Read a denial as feedback on the evidence, not a verdict on your traffic. And treat every credit as a signal to fix the leak upstream, because the cheapest invalid click is the one that never got billed.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I dispute invalid clicks in Google Ads?
You submit an invalid traffic investigation request through Google's Click Quality Form. Google asks for six things: your 10-digit Customer ID, the exact date range (within the last 60 days), the campaign and ad group names affected, the suspicious keywords, web server logs containing IP addresses, user agents, and GCLIDs, and a short explanation of why the traffic looks invalid. Only a user with admin access to the payments profile can submit. Google emails the result after several business days, and approved findings arrive as account credits.
What evidence does Google need for an invalid clicks claim?
The strongest claims pair a clear pattern with raw data. Pattern: a spike in clicks with no matching rise in conversions, repeat clicks from the same IPs or ranges, clicks clustered at odd hours or from regions you don't target, and short sessions with no engagement. Data: server logs or click-level records with timestamps, IP addresses, user agents, and GCLIDs for the affected window. Screenshots of Google Ads reports help but do not replace logs.
How long do I have to dispute invalid clicks?
Investigations are limited to the past 60 days, so file within 60 days of the suspicious traffic. In practice you should file well before that: gathering logs and building the pattern takes time, and Google's review adds several business days on top. If you notice a problem, start the evidence file the same day.
Does Google give refunds or credits for invalid clicks?
Credits, not cash. Google filters most invalid clicks before billing so you never pay for them. For clicks that slip through and are later confirmed invalid, Google applies an account credit against future spend. There is no cash refund path for invalid activity, and the credit is limited to the clicks Google agrees were invalid.
What if Google says no invalid activity was found?
A denial usually means the evidence did not show a pattern Google's systems agree is invalid, not that your traffic was clean. Review what you sent: was the date range tight, were the logs complete, did you show a repeat pattern? If you find gaps, strengthen the file and submit again once the 60-day per-account interval allows. Meanwhile, block the sources yourself with IP exclusions and independent protection, because credits only recover the past.
Can I dispute invalid clicks without server logs?
You can submit, but your odds drop sharply. Google specifically lists web server logs with IPs, user agents, and GCLIDs among the required data. If you don't have logs, ask your hosting provider or developer to export access logs for the date range, or use a click-tracking layer that records this data for every paid click. Going forward, keep click-level records so the next claim is ready in minutes.
