How to check your Microsoft Advertising traffic
Compare the affected campaign with Microsoft's low-quality-click reporting and the visits recorded on your site. Check the network, dates and enquiries behind the numbers before adjusting an exclusion or protection setting.
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For a local service, start with the calls or forms your team received. Are they genuine requests from customers you can serve? Work back to the relevant campaigns where possible, and investigate unsuitable targeting as well as suspicious activity.
What do low-quality clicks mean in Microsoft Advertising?
Microsoft Advertising reports low-quality clicks and identifies activity that is not charged. Read those definitions when comparing its figures with MyClickShield. A suspicious website visit and a low-quality ad click are recorded at different stages, so the totals may differ even when both reports are working correctly.
Select the same dates, time zone and campaign before comparing the numbers. Check the network and source of the traffic that concerns you. For a local service business, also ask whether the resulting enquiries come from areas you actually serve. Poor targeting can produce unsuitable calls without fraudulent activity. If you decide to use an available exclusion, confirm that the correct Microsoft Advertising account is connected and check the action status. Keep a few examples of the visits or enquiries that prompted the change. They make it easier to review the result and to explain a remaining problem to support.
Are your enquiries reaching the right customers?
Ask the people answering calls or following up forms what they are receiving. Are enquiries genuine? Is the customer in your service area? Do they want a service you provide? A real person asking for something you do not offer is a targeting problem. Repeated nonsense submissions may need a closer look at the form and associated visits.
Keep a simple record of the reasons enquiries are rejected. It can reveal a broad keyword, an unclear offer or a form that is too easy to misuse. Check duplicates before dismissing them: a customer may have submitted twice because no confirmation appeared or nobody responded. Where the visit looks suspicious, compare its timing and campaign with the submitted details. Use both the traffic information and feedback from your team when deciding what to change. Improving an ad, clarifying a service area or fixing follow-up can be as relevant as adjusting a protection rule.
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.
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.
What should you measure before switching protection on?
Before changing protection settings, save a report for the campaign you want to improve. Include its spend, clicks, landing pages and useful results: qualified calls, accepted enquiries or paid orders. Note the existing exclusions as well. Choose dates that reflect your normal business. A weekend promotion will usually bring different visitors from an ordinary Tuesday.
Keep a short note of changes during the trial, including new ads, budget increases, promotions and website edits. If sales improve after several changes at once, that note will help you understand what may have contributed. Check lead quality with the people answering calls or handling enquiries; a larger form-submission count can conceal more unsuitable requests. With a low-volume campaign, you may need longer to judge the effect on sales. You can still use the first week to confirm that tracking works, reports make sense and the right account is connected.
How much money has click protection actually saved?
Start with what you were actually charged and the results your business received. A flagged visit does not automatically equal a paid click. Your advertising platform may already have filtered or credited some invalid activity. Check its reporting and billing adjustments before adding up a claimed saving from the same visits.
For a practical comparison, look at spend per qualified enquiry or paid order before and after the change. Include the subscription fee and the time you spend reviewing traffic. For example, if ten flagged visits are multiplied by a $4 average click price, the resulting $40 is an estimate of possible exposure, not proof of a $40 refund. Keep estimates labelled and explain the calculation. A useful review should show whether your account is producing better-quality enquiries or orders for its overall cost, with promotions, bid changes and other adjustments taken into account.
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.
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.
