IVT: Invalid Traffic You're paying for clicks that were never real.

Ad fraud is draining your budget.
Anura helps you stop it fast.

What is Invalid Traffic (IVT)?

Invalid Traffic (IVT) is any ad engagement—clicks, impressions, or conversions—that isn’t from a real, legitimate user. This includes bots, click farms, fake users, and other forms of non-human or malicious activity that skew your performance data, waste your ad spend, and have the potential to damage your brand’s reputation by associating your ads with low-quality or fraudulent sources.

SIVT

Sophisticated Invalid Traffic

These highly advanced and sophisticated techniques are used to generate fraudulent traffic and are far more challenging to detect. SIVT can include advanced bots that closely mimic human traffic, hijacked devices, malware, invalid proxy traffic, cookie manipulation techniques, like cookie stuffing, or human fraud farms.

GIVT

General Invalid Traffic

This encompasses relatively simpler and more easily detectable forms of invalid traffic. GIVT refers to bots, crawlers, spiders, or any non-human traffic typically routed from a data center IP address. GIVT can also apply to activity-based filtration or browsers that pre-render pages.

NHT

Non-Human Traffic

Also known as bot traffic, NHT is traffic generated by automated bots or scripts rather than real human visitors. Bots can simulate user behavior, such as clicking on ads, visiting websites, or filling out forms, leading to inflated ad metrics and misleading campaign performance.

NHT can be a subset of both SIVT and GIVT categories.

Direct Financial Loss

Every fake click or impression represents budget lost, genuine customers missed, and opportunities that never had a chance to convert. Even minimal fraud rates add up, bleeding your ad spend over time.

Operational Loss

Fake interactions don’t just waste ad spend, they derail entire campaigns. Sales teams chase dead leads, analytics get skewed, and genuine prospects are buried under mountains of fraudulent noise.

TCPA Risk

When fake leads fill out forms or engage with your ads, it exposes you to potential TCPA violations. Imagine calling someone who never actually filled out that form. Suddenly, you’re facing fines and legal scrutiny, all because of fraudulent submissions.

Compromised Data Integrity

When ad fraud pollutes your analytics, every decision gets tainted. Misguided strategies, wasted budgets, and inaccurate targeting follow, making it impossible to optimize with confidence or precision.

Credit Card Fraud & Business Risk

A fraudster uses a stolen credit card on your e-commerce site. Weeks later, the real card owner disputes it. You lose the product and pay chargeback fees. Too many chargebacks, and credit card companies cut you off.

SIVT is the real threat: bots that act human.
Today's bots don't just click; they infiltrate.

Because IVT often mimics legitimate behavior, it can go undetected without the right tools. It’s a persistent issue for advertisers, marketers, and businesses that rely on digital traffic.

Download Anura’s latest Fraud Report to learn more about the cost of IVT

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Only Pay for Real Traffic

Anura detects bots, click farms, and other forms of invalid traffic in real time, so you stop wasting budget on clicks that will never convert.

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Better Campaign Performance

Cleaner traffic means stronger engagement, more accurate optimization, and a higher return on ad spend.

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Full Transparency, Zero Guesswork

You get clear, evidence-backed insights—not vague scores or black-box decisions—so you can take action with confidence.

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Fast, Seamless Protection

Real-time detection without slowing down your campaigns, disrupting users, or adding friction to your stack.

FAQs

What is IVT Prevention?

IVT (Invalid Traffic) prevention is the proactive strategy and set of tools used to identify, block, and reduce non-genuine interactions. Instead of simply recognizing invalid traffic after it occurs, IVT prevention aims to stop it in real time or before it can engage with your ads. This effectively helps to preserve your media spend and campaign performance.

What is AdSense Invalid Traffic?

AdSense invalid traffic includes any activity that artificially inflates advertiser costs or publisher earnings on Google Ads. This could be from repeated clicks, click farms, or bots. If Google detects this type of traffic, it may withhold or claw back earnings and possibly suspend the AdSense account.

How Does Google Detect Invalid Traffic?

Google uses a combination of automated systems, machine learning, and human review to detect invalid traffic. These systems analyze patterns in user behavior and engagement metrics to flag and filter suspicious activity.

Of course, Google invalid traffic is still a major issue, and these measures aren’t anywhere near enough to catch sophisticated invalid traffic. Advanced bots that mimic human behavior or coordinated click farms can easily bypass detection. These systems also tend to focus more on reactive blocking (after the damage is done) rather than proactive prevention. Similarly, accidental clicks and low-quality placements often slip through the cracks, consuming ad spend without delivering genuine engagement.

That’s why it’s important to also use a solution like Anura to prevent invalid traffic from impacting your metrics and advertising budgets.

Why is Invalid Traffic Detection Important?

Invalid traffic detection protects your ad budget, data integrity, and legal standing. Even small amounts of ad fraud can cause:

Wasted Spend: Every fake click drains budget and steals chances from real customers.
Skewed Analytics: Fraud pollutes your data, leading to poor decisions and misallocated spend.
Sales Disruption: Teams waste time chasing fake leads while real prospects get overlooked.
Legal Risks: Fraudulent form fills can trigger TCPA violations and costly fines.
Chargeback Losses: Stolen credit card use can lead to product loss, fees, and payment processor issues.

Detection helps you catch and stop these threats before they do damage, which is something other filters often miss.

IVT: Invalid Traffic You're paying for clicks that were never real.

Ad fraud is draining your budget. Anura helps you stop it fast.

What is Invalid Traffic (IVT)?

SIVT

Sophisticated Invalid Traffic

GIVT

General Invalid Traffic

NHT

Non-Human Traffic

The costly impact of IVT on businesses.

Direct Financial Loss

Operational Loss

TCPA Risk

Compromised Data Integrity

Credit Card Fraud & Business Risk

SIVT is the real threat: bots that act human.Today's bots don't just click; they infiltrate.

What Anura does for you.

Only Pay for Real Traffic

Better Campaign Performance

Full Transparency, Zero Guesswork

Fast, Seamless Protection

Case Study

Proof that clean traffic performs better.

230%

increase in revenue

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FAQs

What is IVT Prevention?

What is AdSense Invalid Traffic?

How Does Google Detect Invalid Traffic?

Why is Invalid Traffic Detection Important?

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Ad fraud is draining your budget.
Anura helps you stop it fast.

SIVT is the real threat: bots that act human.
Today's bots don't just click; they infiltrate.