Anyone else seeing low-quality Google Ads traffic?

gmbpro

I've been seeing a pattern across multiple accounts that's hard to pin down. Clicks and CTR look fine, but the user behaviour is off - weak downstream signals like low engagement, poor conversion intent, and high bounce rates.

A few things I've observed:

Session volume is normal, but time on site and pages per session are down by roughly 30-40% compared to the same period last year.
Traffic quality varies significantly by placement and device. Breaking it down there usually reveals the problem - display placements or certain mobile formats are often the culprit.
It's not always obvious bot-like behaviour; sometimes it's just inconsistent session quality across campaigns.

Someone in another discussion mentioned this has been happening for the last 15 years, which checks out. But it feels like Google's quality filters have gotten lazy recently - app campaigns are particularly bad.

Has anyone else tried splitting by placement + device? That's where the pattern becomes visible.

splittester

If by 'lately' you mean the past fifteen years of watching click-farms parade through analytics dressed as real users, then yes. It's a slow bleed-low-grade, synthetic traffic that wrecks any sense of clean performance data.

ctrjunkie

Oh tell me about it. My app campaigns are doing the exact same thing - click numbers look totally fine on paper, but once you dig into the actual user behaviour? Absolute garbage. Honestly feels like Google's quality filters have just switched off or something.

pixelperfect

Honestly, that was my first thought too. I've had clients who suddenly saw a flood of garbage clicks out of nowhere, and when we dug into the data, it looked suspiciously like a competitor running click fraud.

The frustrating thing is that Google's built-in detection doesn't always catch it in time. You end up burning through your daily budget on visits that bounce in under 2 seconds. Worth checking your IP exclusions and setting up automated rules to pause campaigns if the bounce rate spikes. It's a rotten feeling when you're paying for traffic that's completely useless.

wordweaver

Oh absolutely, I've been watching this same clown show play out across multiple accounts. Newer ones or anything that's had a recent tweak - clicks look all healthy and smug, CTR pretending everything's fine, then you peek at actual on-site behaviour and bounce rates are through the roof. Something is very, very broken.

Usually it's one of two villains. Broad match has gone full rogue - Google serves your ad for search terms that technically match, but the intent is so misaligned it's almost impressive. Someone clicks, realises your page isn't their dream destination, and bounces. You still pay, obviously.

Or it's Performance Max, which is basically a junk click factory. It finds cheap traffic from random display placements and mobile games where people accidentally tap while trying to skip an ad. Volume looks fab. Actual humans with wallets? Not so much.

Quick sanity check: open GA4 and stare at average engagement time for paid traffic. If you're seeing a mountain of clicks with under three seconds on site, that's not intent. That's digital landfill.

What campaign type are you running - Search, PMax, display? That'll help sniff out exactly where the rot is.

tagmanager

I'd double-check that no auto-AI features have sneaked in - seen that messing things up in a few accounts recently. Also worth confirming "Search Partners" is toggled off in campaign settings if it's a search campaign. That alone can flood you with garbage traffic.

wordweaver

Oh, honey. If your clicks are converting worse than a wet paper bag, it's usually because your targeting's broader than your ego or your landing page is a total bait-and-switch. Tighten the audience, not just the budget.

ranktracker

I've run into the same thing myself. "Normal" clicks with no engagement usually means you're paying for low-intent junk from botty search partners or cheap placements. The fix I've found is tightening search partners, switching to exact or phrase match, and keeping a hawk-eye on the search terms report until the garbage clears out. The traffic numbers look fine until you actually check what people do on the page.

gmbpro

Not new. What's changed is how aggressive Smart Bidding and broad match expansion have become, making intent mismatch far more visible in reporting. Search Terms report will confirm.

tagmanager

I'm with you - even "Exact match" feels like a vague suggestion these days. I've been spending hours filtering out unrelated keyword variations and adding negatives. It's a massive time sink for something that should be precise.

Same issue here: high CTR, but no real engagement. Started suspecting bots, then checked GA4 - shows mostly targeted countries, with about 15 seconds engagement per user. No obvious traffic spike either. Either I'm reading the data wrong, or the bots have levelled up significantly.

Anything else I should be digging into? I'd love to know if there's a reliable signal that separates real interest from these phantom clicks.

emailwiz

Oh, I saw this exact mess a few months back. Started digging into the data and found a clear pattern-certain keywords combined with mobile traffic from specific regions were just bombarding the account. Once I filtered those out, the quality jumped noticeably. If that doesn't clean it up, a tool like ClickCease can help automate the blocking. Painful, but worth the deep analysis.

wordweaver

Oh honey, first question-what kind of campaigns are we even talking about here? display? video? PMax? Just search? Because if you're running open display or broad match PMax without exclusions, you are the traffic source. 😏

Also, for the love of all that is holy, block traffic from China. Seriously. The amount of bot garbage coming out of there right now is off the charts. It's like they all got a group memo: "time to tank someone's CPA." Filter it out yesterday.