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Audit Rules & Traffic Classification

This guide explains how Vaudit identifies and classifies different types of ad traffic. It outlines the rules behind our audit decisions and helps you understand which events are flagged, why they're flagged, and what standards they align with.

Overview of Classification

Vaudit flags traffic using a hierarchy of rules, based on the strength of evidence for suspicious or non-compliant behavior:

  • Refundable Events: Strong indicators of invalid or non-compliant traffic. These are often used to support refund claims.
  • Overcharge Events: Weaker indicators of low-quality traffic. These may not qualify for refunds but can guide optimization (e.g. exclusions or bid changes).

Traffic Rules and Definitions

1. Zero-Second Clicks (Refundable)

Definition: Clicks that result in no pageview.

  • Why it’s flagged: A user clicked your ad but never loaded the content of the page.
  • Possible causes: Broken tracking, bounce blockers, or click fraud.
  • Standard: Aligns with MRC viewability principles and Google policies on invalid clicks.

2. Out-of-Geo (Refundable)

Definition: Clicks that came from geographic regions you've actively excluded in your campaign settings.

  • Why it’s flagged: These clicks directly violate your targeting preferences.
  • Standard: Supported by IAB, MRC, TAG, and Google policies as invalid traffic.

3. Out-of-Geo (Overcharge)

Definition: Clicks from areas that weren’t specifically excluded but also weren’t targeted.

  • Why it’s flagged: These locations fall outside your intended business region and may underperform.
  • Standard: Not invalid by definition, but often considered lower quality.

4. Bounced Sessions (Refund)

Definition: Clicks where users land on your page but don’t interact at all.

  • Why it’s flagged: No clicks or interactions signal low engagement or accidental/invalid visits.
  • Standard: MRC and IAB recognize bounce patterns as potential signals of invalid traffic.

5. Bounced Sessions (Overcharge)

Definition: Same as above, but evaluated against an acceptable bounce rate.

  • Why it’s flagged: When your actual bounce rate exceeds a threshold, we calculate how much you may have overpaid.

Campaign Type

Max Bounce Rate (Refund)

Max Bounce Rate (Overcharge)

Search

50%

30%

PMax/Display/Shopping

70%

50%

6. High Frequency Clicks (Refund)

  • Why it’s flagged: Highly suspicious behavior indicating non-human activity.

Standard: While the industry standard (MRC/IAB) flags suspicious activity if a single IP loads 3 or more pages in 30 seconds, our system uses a much stricter threshold: 3+ page loads in under 10 seconds. This means that if traffic is flagged by our system, it is exhibiting extremely rapid, non-human behavior—far beyond what is considered suspicious by industry norms.

7. High Frequency Clicks (Overcharge)

Definition: Same IP generates 5+ page loads in under 60 seconds.

  • Why it’s flagged: Indicates potential abuse or repeated clicks from a single source.


How We Calculate Impact

For each flagged event, we calculate the estimated overcharge or refund amount using:

  • The number of affected sessions or clicks
  • The average cost per click (CPC) for the campaign

These amounts are rolled up in your audit dashboard, giving you clear visibility into what’s happening, and where optimizations or refund requests might be warranted.



Why This Matters

These audit rules ensure that:

  • You only pay for valid, high-quality traffic
  • You have clear documentation to support refund discussions with platforms
  • You get actionable insights to reduce waste and improve campaign ROI

If you have any questions about how specific rules apply to your account, feel free to reach out to your Vaudit rep.