Performance Max protection
Performance Max spends everywhere. Your exclusions should reach it too.
One Performance Max campaign buys clicks on Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, and Google decides where. It doesn’t take campaign IP exclusions, so ClickTrap puts blocked sources on your account’s own list, which it does respect.
- 09:12 Display partner appNo interaction ×2 Account list
- 09:20 ShoppingReal visitor Allowed
- 09:41 YouTubeData centre Account list
- 10:03 SearchReal visitor Allowed
- 10:15 DiscoverRepeat clicker Account list
The problem
Where fake clicks hide in Performance Max
A black box of placements
Most of the budget can go to partner sites, apps and video without a report of where. Fake clicks hide in the mix.
Bidding learns from the junk
Performance Max always uses Smart Bidding. Bots that convert, or look engaged, teach it to buy more of the same.
Polluted audience signals
Your remarketing lists and customer signals steer the campaign. Bots on those lists send it after more bots.
No campaign exclusions
IP exclusions you add to a Search campaign don’t reach Performance Max. Only the account’s own list does.
Why it needs the account list
Campaign exclusions don’t reach Performance Max.
Search and Shopping campaigns each take 500 IP exclusions of their own, and ClickTrap has always filled those. Performance Max refuses them. The only IP exclusions it respects are on the account’s own list, so blocked sources go there too.
Campaign IP exclusions
- 500 per campaign
- Search, Shopping and Display take them
- Performance Max refuses them
Blocked sources still reach Performance Max.
The account’s own list
- 500 per account, shared with your own entries
- Applies to every campaign in the account
- ClickTrap fills it, alongside your campaign exclusions
Blocked sources are kept out of Performance Max too.
How it works
Nothing to set up in Google Ads.
Link Google Ads and protect all campaigns. The account list is filled on its own, and you can switch it off for any website.
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Every ad click is checked
When a visitor from your ads reaches your website, ClickTrap checks the device, the network and the click, including app clicks without the usual click ID.
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Behaviour is scored
Scroll, movement, taps and typing are counted (never what was typed), and each visit is labelled engaged, skimmed, bounced or no interaction.
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Bad sources go on the account list
Blocked addresses are added to your Google Ads account’s own IP exclusion list, which Performance Max respects, within minutes.
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The list stays fresh
Google allows 500 addresses per account. Manual blocks stay; older automatic ones rotate off as new ones are found, and your own entries are never touched.
- Entries you added yourself, always kept
- Your manual blocks, first
- Then the newest automatic blocks
- Older ones rotate off as new ones are found
More than exclusions
Clean data for a campaign that learns on its own.
Behaviour scoring
Visitors who stay without scrolling, moving or tapping are flagged, and blocked when they come back.
Clean audiences
Suspicious visitors kept out of the remarketing lists and audience signals Performance Max learns from, on Patrol, Garrison and Fortress.
Verified conversions
Only genuine conversions are sent to Google Ads, so Smart Bidding learns from real customers, on Patrol, Garrison and Fortress.
Customers never blocked
A visitor who has converted is never excluded, even if a later visit looks odd.
Gatekeeper
Visitors from blocked sources can’t call, message or send your forms.
Every click explained
Each paid visit with its campaign, device, network, behaviour and why it was flagged or blocked.
Also running: Demand Gen protection · YouTube ads protection · Smart Bidding protection
FAQ
Questions about Performance Max protection
Does Performance Max support IP exclusions?
Not on the campaign. Google applies the IP exclusions on your account’s own list to every campaign in the account, Performance Max included, and that’s the list ClickTrap adds to.
Do I need to do anything in Google Ads?
No. Once Google Ads is linked and your website protects all campaigns, ClickTrap adds blocked sources to your account’s own IP exclusion list as it finds them. Your own entries on that list are never touched.
Is there a limit?
Google allows 500 addresses on an account’s list, shared with any you added yourself. Manual blocks go on first, then the newest, and older automatic ones rotate off as new ones are found. Your Search and Shopping campaigns still get their own 500 each.
Can you see views and engagements on Google’s own surfaces?
No. ClickTrap checks the clicks that reach your website, which are the ones you pay for as clicks. Views, likes and plays on Google’s own surfaces are filtered by Google.
Can I switch it off?
Yes, for each website, on its Google Ads tab. Our addresses then come off your account’s list, and your campaign exclusions carry on as before.