What should happen after you install MyClickShield?
A test visit should appear in the intended website's records, and the correct advertising account should be connected. From there, inspect a flagged visit, check the available response and confirm that ordinary customers can still enquire or buy.
Read moreRead less
Use the landing pages that actually receive paid traffic for your tests. Include redirects, forms and checkout. If something is missing, note the page, time and installation method before asking the website owner or support team to investigate.
Is MyClickShield installed on the right pages?
Check the landing pages receiving your paid traffic, rather than testing only the homepage. Confirm that the tracking snippet is installed through your chosen website or tag-manager setup and has not been added twice. If a campaign sends visitors through a redirect or onto a separate landing-page service, include that destination in the check.
Open a page in your own browser, move to the next step and look for the expected visit record. Test the form or checkout as a customer would. If your site changes pages without a full reload, check those route changes too. Review how the snippet behaves with your consent settings and ask the person managing your website to investigate missing records. Give them the affected URL, approximate time and installation method. After a website redesign or tag-manager change, repeat these checks before relying on the reports from a newly launched campaign.
Who should connect and maintain your ad account?
Use an account owner or someone with the appropriate access to connect your advertising account. Before authorizing the connection, check the business name and account ID, especially if you manage several clients. Review the permissions shown in the connection process and confirm which campaigns you intend to protect. Keep account passwords and private credentials out of shared spreadsheets and support messages.
Decide who will check the connection if access expires or a member of staff leaves. A disconnected account can still require attention even when the website tracker is collecting visits. If actions are no longer being applied, inspect the connection status before assuming traffic has become clean. When taking over an account from another agency, ask which integrations and reporting permissions are already in use. When a client leaves, review those connections and access rights so the correct people retain control of their own account.
Why do ad clicks and website visits show different totals?
Your advertising account and website analytics count different things. A visitor can click twice during one session, leave before a slow page loads or decline analytics cookies. A redirect can also remove campaign parameters. Start by checking these possibilities when the numbers do not match; the difference alone cannot tell you how many clicks were fraudulent.
Use the same date range and time zone in both reports. Check that you selected the same campaign and landing page, and allow for reporting delays. Open the actual destination URL and follow any redirects to see whether its campaign information is kept. If an enquiry becomes a sale several days later, include that delay when reviewing results. For recurring discrepancies, save a specific example with the click time and destination. It will give the person maintaining your tracking a much clearer starting point than a screenshot of two unexplained totals.
How can you tell why a visit was flagged?
Open an example flagged visit and check when it happened, which campaign brought it and what the visitor did. Several visits from one address may deserve a closer look, but offices and mobile networks can share addresses. A customer researching a costly purchase may also return repeatedly. The visit's timing and behaviour help you judge whether the flag makes sense.
Then check what happened after the flag. Was the visit recorded for review? Was access restricted on the website? Was an available action sent to an advertising account? Check the status shown for your setup. If you cannot explain a particular decision, save its date, campaign and record details for support. Looking closely at a few examples is a useful way to learn the dashboard, spot a configuration problem and decide whether a rule needs adjusting before you apply it more widely.
What happens after a suspicious click is detected?
There are several possible responses to a suspicious visit. The system can record it for review, apply a supported website action or send an available exclusion to a connected advertising account. The option depends on the integration and campaign. Check which response your setup uses before judging the result from a dashboard total.
A website block happens after a visitor has reached your site. It cannot undo the original ad click. An advertising exclusion is intended to affect later ad delivery, subject to that platform's rules. Check whether the action was applied successfully and whether the account connection needs attention. If you manage Google, Meta and Microsoft campaigns, review each connection separately; their controls differ. For an unresolved case, give support the campaign type, approximate time and action status. Those details make it easier to find out whether you need to adjust a setting, reconnect an account or investigate the visit further.
How to investigate a sudden increase in ad clicks
Suppose a campaign suddenly receives more clicks without more enquiries. Before investigating, you only know that costs have risen. Pausing the campaign may stop the spending, but it can also stop genuine customers reaching you. Start by noting the affected dates and checking whether you changed the budget, targeting, offer or landing page around that time.
Next, inspect the traffic source and a few visits from the affected period. Test the enquiry form yourself. If you find a page problem, repair it. If a particular group of visits looks suspicious, review the available protection settings for that campaign and record the change you make. Afterwards, watch both the suspicious activity and genuine enquiries. This before-and-after example shows how to narrow the response. To assess your own result, compare similar days and keep other campaign changes in the record so you can see what helped.
Could a protection rule block a real customer?
A real customer might browse through a company network, use a VPN or switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data. Several people can also share one public IP address. These situations matter when you review repeated visits or a network-based flag. If you tighten a rule, check a sample of the affected visits and confirm that ordinary enquiries or purchases still work.
When someone reports a problem, ask which page they tried to use and approximately when it happened. Compare that information with the visit record before changing a broad account setting. Check whether an exclusion or website rule caused the problem, then adjust the relevant setting if needed. Keep a note explaining any exception so the next person managing the account understands it. Include staff, your agency and tools your website relies on in your checks, especially after installing protection or changing a site's forms and checkout.
How do you add protection to more websites?
Start with a website whose campaigns and customer journey you know well. Confirm that visits are recorded, the correct advertising account is connected and forms or checkout still work. Review a few records with the person who will manage that site. Write down the installation steps and any questions you had to resolve.
Use those notes when adding the next website, but check its own requirements. A shop, a booking site and a lead-generation page may use different domains, forms and tracking tools. Confirm the account IDs and conversion steps for each one. If a site needs an exception, record why rather than adding it to every account. Keep a way to reverse a change if genuine visitors encounter a problem. After each installation, check the first records and connection status before moving on. This makes it easier to find mistakes while the details of that setup are still fresh.
Who checks protection after the initial setup?
Decide who will check account connections and respond to unexpected traffic or customer complaints. In a small business, that may be the person already managing campaigns. In an agency, assign responsibility for each client. Keep the routine manageable: look for connection problems, review unusual changes and follow up on any unresolved visit or rule.
Leave a short handover note with the installation location, connected account IDs, important exceptions and where reports are kept. Include the steps to check after a website redesign, new checkout or staff change. If a customer cannot use a form, the next person should know where to look and whom to contact. Record why you changed a setting, especially when allowing an exception. That explanation is much more useful six months later than a list of addresses with no dates or reasons. Review access when someone joins or leaves the team.
What should a useful traffic report show?
Start your report with the campaign, dates and question you investigated. For example: enquiries fell after a new placement started sending traffic. Show the change in spend and qualified enquiries, then add a few visits that explain why you investigated that source. Include the action taken and any question that still needs an answer.
If the report goes to a client, explain unfamiliar terms the first time you use them. They should be able to see what happened without interpreting a list of IP addresses. Keep the detailed records available for the person checking the account. Where a change has been made, say when you will review its effect and what you will compare. A short report with a specific follow-up is easier to use in a campaign meeting than a long list of blocked visits with no explanation of how customers or advertising costs were affected.
