Click Confirmation

What is Click Confirmation?

Click Confirmation, or also known as a Double Click penalty is a procedure implemented by Google to ensure a genuine interest in ads placed on both mobile and desktops. This issue usually manifests on sites that have been flagged as the sites with a high level of accidental clicks. To ensure a real intention of users before redirecting to the advertiser’s destination URL, the ad should be clicked twice. In practice, when a confirmed clicks are in place, the interstitial “visit site” button overlays the ad – as it is shown in the image below – to confirm the user’s intention to click.

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If the user clicks on both the ad and the verification button, the click will be registered. Otherwise, the publisher will not earn revenue from a single unverified click. Confirmed Click procedure can only be applied to ads served by Google Ad Manager or AdSense.  Nevertheless, this can have a devastating effect on the publishers’ revenue. 

How do I know if my ad inventory is impacted by Confirmation Click penalty?

Publishers are not permitted to click on their own ads for any reason.

In case your site has been affected by Double Click penalty, the first thing that you will notice is a significant drop in earnings without being a corresponding drop in traffic. The main metrics that shed the light on are eCPM, CTR and Impressions. Impressions will be at normal levels, while eCPM and CTR rates will be dropped considerably.

You can also check if you got the Double Click penalty directly in the ad tag, the keyword to look for is 'confirmedClickVisible':

  • right-click an ad unit on your site and select Inspect,
  • check if the ad code has the following part
<div [class]="confirmedClickVisible ? 'visible' : ''" dir="ltr" id="common_15click_overlay" on="tap:AMP.setState({confirmedClickVisible: !confirmedClickVisible})" role="button" tabindex="0"><div class="common-15click-dialog"><div class="dialog-msg">Visit Site</div><div class="dialog-buttons"><div class="dialog-cancel"><span>No</span></div>

The main reason for Double Click penalty is the high level of invalid traffic, in particular of accidental clicks. In recent years, in order to create a better digital advertising ecosystem, Google together with other demand partners has been more and more active in fighting invalid traffic. Click here to find out more about invalid traffic. 

To find out more on Confirmation Click, visit Google AdSense Support

How Click Confirmation is applied?

Google automatically applies Confirmation Click when it detects that accidental clicks go above a certain threshold. Similarly, it will automatically remove confirmation procedure when accidental clicks go below a certain threshold.

How to prevent Confirmation Click penalty?

In two words – ensure your total compliance with Google AdSense policies.

Below you will find the list of recommendations that have been noticed by our publishers to have a significant effect on confronting Confirmed Clicks issues.

Ensure correct ad placement

Ads should not be placed too close to clickable elements of the site such as a menu, navigation, or download links. Increase the distance between the ad unit and site’s content, if needed.

Make your ads distinguishable from the main content

Make sure all your ads are clearly labelled as ad units by using “Advertisements” or “Sponsored links” above the ad unit.

Avoid any tricks that can mislead users

It is forbidden to offer compensation, use misleading headers or attract attention to ads in an unnatural way. 

Monitor your traffic

Avoid traffic from paid sources and run traffic quality analysis. 

To find out more about ad placement policies, visit Google AdSense Policy Centre.

Accidental Click Measures provided by Clickio

To prevent the impact of click confirmation on monetization revenues for publishers, Clickio developed a set of accidental click measures that can be set up on all ad units site-wide.

1. “Fixed-size” ad unit mode*. To prevent content jumping, we fix the size of the container to the maximum ad unit size.

2. Ad label. The advertising label is added for every ad unit, making it distinguishable from the main content.

3. Padding. We increase the distance between the ad and the site content to prevent any unintentional clicks caused by using small margins.

4. Overlay. We enable the technology that blocks any clicks on ads when they are still loading. 

*Fixed-size ad unit mode is also recommended for the overall visual stability of the site. It is measured by the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) metric in Core Web Vitals. Read more about how to improve Core Web Vitals.

To enable any of the listed above anti-spam measures, please contact your Clickio Manager.

How Clickio Prism can help in solving Click Confirmation issue on mobiles?

We understand that it might be challenging to comply with all the policies. Here at Clickio we constantly monitor new regulations to develop our products in accordance with the rules. One way to fight Confirmation Click penalty can be Clickio Prism – a new technology, developed by Clickio, that transforms any content site into a progressive web app, in compliance with all policies and regulations.

Clickio Prism respects all the main rules for ad placement: 

  • there is a distance between ads and site content,
  • all ads are marked with “Advertisement” label,
  • ads with the grey background are distinguishable from the main content.

prism_example.png

If you believe your site has been affected by Confirmation Click penalty, contact your Clickio account manager or get in touch via email support@clickio.com to receive help and assistance in solving this issue.