You can use TrafficGuard’s PPC Protection in either Detection or Prevention mode. These protection modes determine what action is taken when invalid traffic is detected in your Google Ads traffic.
Types of Protection Mode
Detection only mode
In detection mode, TrafficGuard detects invalid traffic based on over 200 indicators and sophisticated machine learning. In real-time, TrafficGuard reports on this invalid traffic. There is no invalid traffic mitigation or removal in detection mode. For businesses running Google Ads advertising, this visibility helps to understand genuine performance without the influence of invalid traffic as well as guide manual optimisation and exclusions. Learn more about using TrafficGuard’s detection to inform manual exclusions.
Prevention mode
In Prevention mode, TrafficGuard automatically adds sources of invalid traffic to your Google Ads IP exclusion list using the Google Ads API. This prevents your ads from being shown to sources of invalid traffic and ensures that your ad spend is protected from the biggest threats impacting your campaigns at any given time.
💡 Tip
Prevention mode is only available on paid plans. If you are on the free version, you will be required to upgrade to activate prevention.
What mode should you choose?
The detection mode of TrafficGuard PPC Protection is a great starting point for businesses assessing the extent that invalid traffic is impacting their campaigns. Real-time reporting with the ability to drill into quality by campaigns, geos, ad groups and keywords offers a deep understanding of where invalid traffic is coming from and the opportunity for better advertising performance by mitigating it. Log level data in detection mode also facilitates manual exclusions and substantiates any Google Ads refund claims.
In prevention mode, you save time and get the most up-to-date protection as TrafficGuard manages your Google Ads exclusions for you, all in real-time - adding, removing and prioritising IPs based on the most current threats. This ensures that your ads are always protected from bots, fraudsters and other invalid engagements and all your spend is going towards attracting potential customers.
Selecting/switching your Protection mode
When signing up for TrafficGuard’s PPC protection, you can select your preferred protection mode by clicking on the relevant plan, free plan for detection only and paid plan for prevention.
If you wish to switch your mode, you can do so by following a few simple steps listed below:
On your TrafficGuard account scroll down to Properties from the left side menu options
Click on your property
Go to Protection Mode > Click on the drop menu > choose your preferred protection mode
Click save