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Invalid traffic (IVT)
October 22, 2026 Invalid traffic (IVT) is impressions, clicks, and other ad activity that fails quality criteria or does not come from legitimate users, so it has to be removed from measurement and billing. The Media Rating Council (MRC) splits IVT into two groups: GIVT and SIVT.
What is invalid traffic (IVT)?
The MRC defines IVT as traffic or activity tied to ads and content (impressions, viewable impressions, clicks, engagement, and even conversions) that does not meet certain quality or completeness criteria. The cause can be non-human traffic such as bots and spiders, or activity designed to produce IVT (MRC, IVT Standards Addendum, June 2020).
IVT is broader than ad fraud. Google Ad Manager counts accidental clicks and repeated clicks as IVT, even when the person clicking had no intent to cheat (Google Ad Manager Help, Invalid traffic, accessed October 2026).
GIVT vs SIVT under MRC standards
The current MRC standard was issued in June 2020 and replaced the original guidelines from October 2015. The two groups differ in how they are detected and what filtering is required.
| GIVT (general invalid traffic) | SIVT (sophisticated invalid traffic) | |
|---|---|---|
| Detection | Lists and standardized parameter checks | Advanced analytics, multi-point corroboration, human review |
| Examples | Known data center IPs, self-declared bots and crawlers, non-browser user agents, 0x0 or 1×1 ads | Bots posing as users, emulators, hijacked devices, organized click farms, ad stacking, domain or app ID spoofing, ad injection, cookie stuffing |
| Obligation | Mandatory for MRC-accredited measurers, must be removed from billable counts | Encouraged, accredited separately, can be removed later to keep detection methods from being reverse engineered |
For data center GIVT, the MRC requires, at minimum, filtering invalid traffic from IPs of the three largest hosting providers: Amazon AWS, Google, and Microsoft. An interim update in April 2024 warned that as IP addresses get hidden and user agent strings get less detailed for privacy reasons, list-based filtering will weaken (MRC, 2024 IVT Interim Updates, April 2024).
How Google Ads handles IVT
- Invalid clicks detected before the end of the billing cycle are removed from reports and invoices. If they are detected later, Google credits you with an “Invalid activity” adjustment.
- The Invalid clicks column in the campaigns table shows how many were filtered.
- If you suspect missed IVT, you can request an investigation for activity in the last 60 days, with server logs and GCLIDs.
- Google says there is no industry standard for a “normal” IVT rate (Google Ads Help, About invalid traffic, accessed October 2026).
For programmatic buying through Display & Video 360, Google filters at two points. Traffic removed pre-bid is never bought, and traffic removed post-serve is credited back (Campaign Manager 360 Help, Filtering invalid traffic, accessed October 2026).
Illustrative example (hypothetical)
A September Google Ads report shows 10,000 clicks and 800 invalid clicks. The filtered IVT rate is 800 / 10,800 = 7.4%. You pay for 10,000 clicks only. Your website analytics may still record the filtered visits, so seeing more sessions than Google Ads clicks is normal.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between IVT and ad fraud?
Ad fraud is intentional. IVT is all traffic that has to be removed from the numbers, including accidental clicks and legitimate crawlers such as brand safety bots.
If the platform already filters IVT, do I need a third-party tool?
The MRC encourages buyers to add SIVT detection when the campaign’s measurement company only filters GIVT. Third-party tools often flag traffic Google has already filtered, so do not add the two numbers together.
How to spot specific kinds of IVT is covered in the bots and click fraud entries. If you want to check traffic quality for a lead campaign, see Adtek’s Lead Generation page.
