Guides · Updated July 2026

How to File a Google Ads Click Quality Form Claim (Step-by-Step)

Google will credit advertisers for invalid clicks its own filters missed — but only through one official channel, only with the right evidence, and only as ad credits. Here's the whole process, including the parts most guides gloss over.

First, understand what you're actually asking for

Google already filters obvious invalid traffic automatically and credits it before it ever hits your invoice (you can see these as "invalid activity" adjustments in your billing). The Click Quality Form exists for the clicks that got through: you're asking Google to re-investigate specific traffic and issue an invalid activity credit — a credit against future ad spend on the same account. Three things follow from that:

• It's never cash. If you've stopped advertising, a credit is worth nothing to you.
• Google decides from its own data. Your evidence justifies and scopes the investigation; Google's internal click logs decide it.
• Approval rates are low. Practitioners commonly report success around 10%, with "insufficient evidence" the most frequent rejection. Go in with expectations set accordingly — the reliable win from click-fraud analysis is fixing the campaigns that attract bots, with credits as upside.

Step 1: Confirm you're inside the ~60-day window

Google's practical lookback for invalid-click investigations is roughly 60 days. Clicks older than that are generally not eligible no matter how good your evidence is. This has a planning consequence: whatever tool or logging you use must retain at least 60 days of click-level history, or a claim filed today can't cover the full eligible window.

Step 2: Gather your account details

The form asks for:

• Your 10-digit Google Ads customer ID (top-right of the Google Ads console, formatted 123-456-7890)
• The date range of the suspicious activity
• The campaigns, ad groups, or keywords affected
• A factual description of the pattern — e.g., "spike in clicks from datacenter IP ranges with zero interaction and sub-second time on page"

Step 3: Prepare IP-level click logs (the hard part)

Google asks for click-level evidence from your side: logs showing when each suspicious click arrived, from what IP address, with what click identifier. This is the step most advertisers can't complete — standard analytics tools don't keep IP-level click logs, and Google Analytics deliberately doesn't expose IPs at all.

A usable click log has one row per suspicious paid click:

BotAudit produces exactly this file: the Google Claim CSV is one click on your site dashboard and contains only paid Google clicks classified bot or suspicious within the 60-day window, with IP addresses, click IDs, campaigns, and per-click detection reasons.

Step 4: Submit the Click Quality Form

Search for "Google Ads Click Quality Form" or reach it via Google Ads Help → contact options; it's the only official intake for invalid-click claims. Keep the description factual and specific. State the pattern, the date range, and that a click-level log is attached. Don't editorialize about competitors or demand amounts — the reviewers respond to evidence, not volume.

Step 5: Wait — and check the Invalid Activity Credit Report

Google investigates against its internal data and responds at its discretion; there's no SLA. Since June 2026, Google Ads also exposes an Invalid Activity Credit Report showing campaign-level credited clicks and amounts (Search and Performance Max), so you can see what Google credited automatically — before and after your claim. Comparing what Google credited against what your own detection flagged is the fastest way to see whether a manual claim is even worth filing. (Our guide to invalid activity credits covers this report in detail.)

Common rejection reasons

• No click-level evidence — screenshots of analytics dashboards don't qualify.
• Out-of-window clicks — anything older than ~60 days.
• Already credited — Google's filters caught it and the credit is already on your invoice.
• Pattern not reproducible in Google's data — your logs and Google's disagree; Google's win.