Many business owners I talk to are pleased to tell me they have moved past "Adwords" (i.e. search advertising only) and on to using other aspects of Google's advertising ecosystem e.g. YouTube ads and Display.
These same business owners are less pleased when - as a general rule - I explain to them how much junk/spam/bot traffic exists in the Google Display Network (and they are paying for it).
The very high CTR and enormous click volumes, for example, that they are proud of showing off (because high CTR = good, right?) being an indicator that their display ads are in fact showing on junk websites designed to do nothing more than steal their $$$ via ad fraud.
The high levels of reported conversions ... well a deeper dive reveals these are fake or otherwise not going to add any commercial value (e.g. bots clicking on a 'download PDF' link which is tracked as a conversion)
Then there is the fun exercise of showing the business owner/client on a call their placement report inside Google Ads (which, nine times out of ten has never been clicked into because 'headline figures look good' and that is enough).
Then begins the eye-opening process of clicking through the top placements, most of which are either:
* Mobile app ad 'fat fingered' clicks (at best e.g. kids playing games on parents' iPad, or straight up fraud at worst)
* Junk websites that sort of look legit but even the most cursory inspection indicates the site is nothing more than a bot click farm
* Websites that are a terrible fit from a brand perception/safety perspective (I always dread loading something 'dodgy' on screen when a client is on the call)
I don't profess to be the world's foremost expert on display ad fraud (go follow someone like Dr. Augustine Fou who is vastly more knowledgeable and offers more comprehensive solutions).
However, I know enough and have seen enough to recognise a quacking duck in the circumstances I tend to operate in (working with small/medium businesses who run their ad accounts internally or with "modest" agency/freelancer relationships).
What I don't like seeing are good businesses run by decent, hard-working people, who are vaporising $$$ - sometimes amounts that are very significant to that business - that could have numerous better uses within their organisation than being wasted on clearly fraudulent advertising activity for which their is basically no recourse.
If your business runs display ads in Google Ads (particularly if you 'self-manage') feel free to reach out and I will help you quickly determine if your display advertising is subject to significant levels of fraudulent/bot/spam activity.