If you ever seen in your AdSense account that you had one or more clicks but on the estimated earnings column you saw $0.00, you probably experienced “invalid click(s)”. It means that the AdSense team has found some illegitimate engagement (click) behavior with an ad (or more) and you won’t get paid for it.

In an effort to explain this issue furthermore, Google released a post in AdSense official blog describing important things publishers should know about invalid clicks by the AdSense Ad Traffic Quality team. This team is responsible that advertisers would receive the full value of what they are paying for, meaning they will pay only for legitimate traffic and not for false one.

Here are the five things AdSense publishers needs to know about invalid clicks:

1.  Publisher Should Monitor His/Hers Own Ad Traffic
As an AdSense ads publisher, the webmaster should follow regularly the ad traffic he receives and seek for irregularities. If the webmaster feels something suspicious happened, he can submit this Invalid Clicks Contact form to the AdSense Ad Traffic Quality team.

2.  Earnings From Invalid Clicks Goes Back To Advertisers
AdSense is obligated to provide the best service to the user (to find quality ads and websites), to the publisher (quality and relevant ads will appear on the site) and to the advertiser (the full return for his investment). Whenever invalid clicks occur it affects the advertiser investment and therefore the earnings will return to him.

3.  Automatic And Manual Detection
AdSense has sophisticated algorithms that examines each click to verify its legitimacy, before it gets to the publisher reports. Whenever an invalid click is detected by the algorithm, a member of the team verify it is indeed invalid.

4.  Intentional Sabotage
Google are stating that although many webmasters think that clicks sabotage happens a lot, in fact, it is executed only rarely (“small fraction of invalid activity”). At any case, AdSense algorithms can identify these kind of actions to protect publishers as well.

5.  Contacting AdSense If Account Disabled
A publisher that his account was disabled and think it was a mistake, can appeal this decision by filling this Invalid Activity Appeal form.