AdWords Working to Improve Click Quality for User and Marketer

We’ve all done it. Clicking on ads can be done by accident whether on phone, desktop or tablet.

For users this is unpleasant as your experience is interrupted as you are navigated somewhere you did not intend to go.

For marketers it gives us faulty feedback as to user engagement with our creative.

Google is taking some steps to help avoid accidental clicks.

1. Blocking clicks that happen close to the image edge: On mobile image ads, we’ve identified the image border as an area prone to accidental clicks when users are trying to click or scroll to adjacent content. Now, they must click on a more central part of the image to navigate to an advertiser’s website or app.
2. Blocking clicks on the app icon: On in-app interstitial ads, users will no longer be able to click on the app icon of an install ad given its proximity to the ad close button. Instead, users must click on the call-to-action button to visit an app store page and install the app.
3. Adding a clickability delay: Ads will only become clickable after they’ve been onscreen for a short period of time. This gives users enough time to examine the content of an ad and helps eliminate accidental clicks from users who didn’t expect to see an ad.

This will help both the user from being annoyed by the unintended click and provide help give marketers a more accurate idea of ad engagement.

Source: Inside AdWords: Better click quality on display ads improves the user and advertiser experience