Every click on your Google Ads is analysed by TrafficGuard in real-time and assigned a status. These statuses appear throughout the dashboard and reports, and can be used as a filter to focus your data on a specific click type.
Click statuses
✅ Valid The click was determined to be legitimate. It passed all of TrafficGuard's detection checks and is counted as genuine ad engagement.
❌ Invalid The click was determined to be illegitimate — for example, a bot, a duplicate click, or a click from a known invalid source. In Prevention mode, the IP address associated with this click is automatically added to your Google Ads IP exclusion list so the source is blocked from seeing your ads in future.
ℹ️ Detection vs Prevention In Detection mode, invalid clicks are identified and reported but no automated action is taken — the click still reaches your account. In Prevention mode, invalid clicks trigger automatic IP exclusions via the Google Ads API, protecting your ad spend from repeat invalid sources.
For more on protection modes, see: Choosing a protection mode
Using status as a filter
You can filter reports by click status to focus on a specific traffic type. For example, filtering by Invalid across the Campaigns widget shows you which campaigns are most affected by invalid clicks.
To apply a status filter, click the + icon next to Filters and select Modify filters → Validation status.