Google Ads Working On Decreasing Invalid Leads Through Performance Max

There have been some complaints about using Performance Max with Google Ads with lead generation sites. The concern is that many or some of the leads end up being invalid. Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, said Google is “working to address concerns about invalid leads and are increasing investment in preventable measures.”

The complaint came from Tiffany Shears who wrote “We have found a lot of fake leads coming through on performance max for lead gen. Unfortunately not all our clients have the ability to give feedback or have CRMs we can connect. Does anyone know how to reduce fake leads?”

Ginny Marvin responded saying “We are actively working to address concerns about invalid leads and are increasing investment in preventable measures. We also suggest advertisers take the following measures when possible to help reduce leads from users who don’t provide accurate information.”

Here are those tweets:

We have found a lot of fake leads coming through on performance max for lead gen. Unfortunately not all our clients have the ability to give feedback or have CRMs we can connect. Does anyone know how to reduce fake leads? #ppcchat @GinnyMarvin

— Tiffany Shears (@tiffanyjshears) October 18, 2022

-Server-side validation
-Double opt-in
-Recaptcha https://t.co/QZ5zIntszW
-Offline conversion measurement & optimization: OCI https://t.co/T0CFv2Utqd or Enhanced Conv for Leads https://t.co/lplrN6zGCE w/ Qualified & Converted conversion categories https://t.co/tGBHoG6JVM
2/2

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) October 18, 2022

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Here are some of the responses to that:

Another option is to determine where the spam is coming from and don’t send traffic from that source.

It’s most likely going to be from display or YT.

Search is still pretty robust (for the most part).

— Gordon Campbell (@gorcampbell) October 18, 2022

Server-side validation, double opt-in and Recaptcha all happen after you’ve paid for the click. Perhaps not a problem in some industries but e.g. legal can cost > $100 per click. I’m staying off Pmax for lead generation till Google fixes this.

— Peter Bowen (@Pete_Bowen) October 19, 2022

What do you all think?

Forum discussion at Twitter.