Short answer. Find the source of the invalid traffic in your analytics and server logs, remove it, and explain in the appeal what you found, what you changed and how you will monitor it. Appeals that say only that you did nothing wrong rarely succeed.
Common sources of invalid traffic
- Accidental clicks by the publisher or their team
- Low-quality paid traffic or traffic exchanges
- Bots and scrapers
- Ad placement that encourages accidental clicks
Evidence to gather
Traffic by source, referrer, country and date around the spikes. Records of any paid campaigns. Changes you made to placements.
FAQs
Will I get my withheld earnings?
Earnings tied to invalid traffic can be withheld. Whether any are paid depends on the outcome and Google's findings.
Official sources