One keyword
Your most expensive search term gets clicked over and over, and most of the day’s budget leaves through it.
Tripwire
Pause the keyword under attack. Not your campaign.
Excluding an address stops the next click from it. But when fake clicks pile onto one keyword, one device type or one town from new addresses every few minutes, Tripwire takes just that one off for a while and switches it back on by itself. Your budget lasts the day, and real customers still find you.
KeywordLocal business preset
“emergency plumber leeds”
Live
Flagged 2 of 3
Paused · 30 min
Restored
Real clicks, nothing flagged
Fake clicks piling onto this keyword
The attack hits a closed door
Back on, exactly as it was
- Spot
- Pause
- Wait
- Restore
Other keywords Live
Devices Live
Towns Live
An illustration, not a real account
Why it’s needed
Some attacks don’t spread out. They pile up.
A competitor or a click farm rarely clicks at random. It goes for the same expensive door again and again, and by the time one address is excluded, the next is already clicking.
One device type
A stream of clicks from phones or tablets that never call, often from apps and emulators.
One town
A burst of clicks from one town or district, usually just outside the area you actually serve.
One trip, step by step
Spot it. Pause it. Wait. Switch it back on.
A local plumber on the Local business preset. Three flagged clicks on one keyword within the hour, and Tripwire pauses that keyword for half an hour. Nothing else in the account changes.
One keywordLocal business preset
- “emergency plumber leeds”Real visitor, mobile Real visitor
- “emergency plumber leeds”Data centre in Frankfurt Flagged
- “emergency plumber leeds”Same device, new address Flagged
- “emergency plumber leeds”Headless browser Flagged
- Keyword paused for 30 minutesThree flagged clicks in an hour, 75% of its clicks Paused
- Everything else keeps runningEvery other keyword, device and town Live
- Keyword switched back onExactly as it was before Restored
An illustration, not a real account
How it works
Four steps, every minute, without you.
-
Spot
Every paid click is already checked as it lands. Every minute, Tripwire counts where the flagged ones are piling up: which keyword, device type and town.
-
Pause
When enough of them land on one, and they’re a large enough share of its clicks, that one is paused in Google Ads. Only that one.
-
Wait
The attack runs into a closed door for a few minutes. The rest of your campaign keeps showing to real people.
-
Switch back on
When the time is up, it’s put back exactly as it was. No keyword is ever left paused because someone forgot.
Three ways in
The narrowest pause that stops the attack.
A keyword
The keyword under attack is paused in its ad group. The other keywords in the same ad group keep running.
- Never the last keyword running in an ad group
- Never a keyword you’ve protected
A device type
Computers, phones or tablets get a -100% bid adjustment in that campaign, then their previous adjustment back.
- Needs twice as many flagged clicks as a keyword, as it carries more traffic
- Never the last device type with bids
A town
The town, city or district the clicks come from is excluded from the campaign, then the exclusion is removed.
- Never a region or a country
- Never a place your campaign targets, or one you’ve already excluded
Tripwire reads each click’s keyword, device and town from the live ad details, so you approve those first, with one click on your website’s Google Ads tab. If you change a paused keyword or bid yourself in Google Ads, Tripwire leaves it as you set it.
Why it matters
Your budget lasts until the evening.
Tripwire doesn’t make an attack disappear. It slows down how fast it can spend your money. Each pause is a stretch where the attack clicks into nothing, so there’s still budget left when real customers search after work.
An illustration, not a real account.
Presets
Busy shops and local trades need different triggers.
Ten flagged clicks in a quarter of an hour is background noise for an online shop, and a disaster for a locksmith. Pick the preset that sounds like you; you can change it at any time.
| Preset | Trips when | Paused for |
|---|---|---|
| Local business | 3 flagged clicks in 60 minutes, at least 60% of the clicks | 30 minutes |
| Standard | 5 flagged clicks in 30 minutes, at least 50% of the clicks | 15 minutes |
| High volume | 10 flagged clicks in 15 minutes, at least 40% of the clicks | 15 minutes |
Watch first, if you like
In watch-only mode, Tripwire changes nothing. It lists every pause it would have made, so you can see how often it would trip on your traffic before you let it act.
Every pause on the record
Your website’s Google Ads tab lists every trip: what was paused, why, for how long and when it came back. Each change is also kept in your account’s audit log.
Safety rails
It can only ever do a little, and always undoes it.
At most 10 an hour
No more than 10 pauses an hour on a website, whatever happens.
3 a day for each
The same keyword, device type or town can trip at most 3 times in a day.
Never empty
Never the last keyword in an ad group or the last device type with bids, so a campaign can’t go dark.
Always restored
Switch Tripwire off, change plan or disconnect Google Ads, and everything it paused comes straight back.
FAQ
Questions about Tripwire
Will Tripwire switch off my campaign?
No. It only ever pauses one keyword, sets one device type’s bid to -100% or excludes one town, in one campaign, for a few minutes. It never touches the last keyword in an ad group, the last device type with bids or a place your campaign targets, and it never changes budgets, ads or other bids.
What if it pauses a keyword real customers use?
Add it to your protected keywords and Tripwire will never pause it, however many flagged clicks arrive. Or start in watch-only mode: you see every pause it would have made, and nothing changes in Google Ads until you switch it on.
What if something goes wrong with my Google Ads connection?
Everything Tripwire paused is switched back on as soon as it can reach your account again. If Tripwire is switched off, your plan changes or Google Ads is disconnected, it restores everything it paused straight away.
How is this different from excluding IP addresses?
ClickTrap still excludes every bad address. Tripwire is for the moments when an attack moves faster than that, from new addresses every few clicks, and piles onto the same keyword, device type or town.
Which plans include Tripwire?
Tripwire is included on Patrol, Garrison and Fortress, with nothing extra to pay.