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How to Save 15-30% of Your Google Ads Budget Using Click Prevention Software

Many advertisers struggle to maximize their Google Ads budgets due to click fraud, which can drain valuable resources without yielding quality leads. If you’re looking for ways to stretch your ad spend further, click fraud prevention software, like CHEQ Essentials or ClickCease, might be the solution you need. I’ll share some real-world examples from my experience that demonstrate how this tool has helped some of my clients save over 15-30% of their monthly ad budgets.

In this article, I’ll walk through how these platforms work, why they’re valuable for Google Ads campaigns, how to determine which of the two you might want to use, and how to tell if your account could benefit from this type of software.

The Impact of Click Fraud Prevention

Several months ago, I helped a client implement CHEQ Essentials initially to address lead quality issues with the side benefit of reducing the budget spent on fraudulent clicks. I knew this could be effective, since I had noticed they were getting refunds from Google from malicious clicks (more on this later). The results spoke for themselves—these were real savings that we achieved, not just a theory. Let me break it down.

With CHEQ Essentials in place, we noticed two main ways it optimized the budget:

  1. Blocking Clicks in Real-Time
    CHEQ Essentials actively detected and blocked bots and fraudulent users, keeping the ad budget focused on real potential leads. In October alone, it identified and blocked 45 individuals who were attempting to click repeatedly. Each of these individuals clicked, on average, an additional 3.1 times, resulting in a total of 140 blocked clicks.
    • Note: It doesn’t block the first click, just subsequent clicks after it learns from the first one. That’s why we calculate the savings off the additional clicks.
  2. Securing Refunds from Google Ads
    I honestly don’t fully understand exactly how it does it, but CHEQ Essentials provided data to Google that helped secure refunds for invalid clicks. Over the same period, we received an additional $155 in Google Ads “adjustments” (refunds)—three times our typical monthly refund. Google’s detection systems flagged and refunded more invalid clicks based on the insights provided by CHEQ Essentials.

Breaking Down the Savings

Here’s how the numbers add up: CHEQ Essentials blocked 140 invalid clicks in October, with each click costing an average of $4.70. This totaled $658 in saved budget. Adding the $155 refund from Google Ads, the total savings came to over $800. For my client’s $4,000 budget, (and for any client, really) that 20% difference is substantial.

These savings mean that more of the ad budget could be directed toward legitimate clicks and higher-quality leads, rather than being wasted on low-value or fraudulent traffic.

How to Know if You Need Click Fraud Protection

Wondering if your Google Ads account could benefit from CHEQ Essentials? Here’s a quick way to find out:

  1. Check Your Google Ads Billing Section
    Navigate to the Billing section in Google Ads and filter by “Adjustments.” This filter shows refunds and adjustments Google has issued for invalid clicks.
  2. Look at Your Monthly Adjustments
    If you’re seeing more than $15-$20 in adjustments each month, your account is likely experiencing a significant amount of fraudulent or invalid clicks. Accounts with frequent adjustments are good candidates for a solution like CHEQ Essentials, which can help prevent these clicks from happening and recover even more in refunds.
    • Another way I’ve looked at this is in terms of percentages. Often, clients with around a 3%+ refund rate are experiencing higher levels of malicous clicks, and would probably see an immediate improvement in ad effectiveness.

Client Success Story: $15,000+ Saved with ClickCease

Years ago, I worked with a large roofing company in Georgia with a massive monthly ad spend of over $100,000. We noticed adjustments appearing in their billing section, indicating potential issues with click fraud (as you now know). To protect their budget, we implemented ClickCease (now acquired by CHEQ and operating separately).

The results were staggering. Immediately in the first month, ClickCease not only proactively blocked numerous fraudulent clicks, but it also generated more than $15,000 in adjustments from Google Ads. For a few hundred bucks, this tool saved the client tens of thousands of dollars and allowed them to focus more of their budget on high-quality leads.

To be transparent, the subsequent months saw fewer adjustments as the fraudulent traffic was prevented, but was still 100% worth the money.

Another Client Example – Dental Implant Center

A more recent experience happened just a few months ago, with a dental implant center on the east coast. In August I had recommended to them these softwares and they chose ClickCease (I’ll talk about selection next). When I reviewed their October number with them, they had spent $22,500 in ads. With ClickCease in place, they had blocked 1,553 clicks at an average CPC of $3.90, totaling over $6,056.70, making their traffic overall 17% cleaner. They also received an additional $600+ in refunds from Google that month, giving them around 29% more efficient marketing spend in that month!

Should I choose ClickCease or CHEQ Essentials?

Often the first question (but not most important) I get asked is price. The obvious difference is that ClickCease starts at $89/mo and CHEQ Essentials starts at $149/mo. Both have a scaling-by-use model, so as you expand, you’ll pay more, but it’s a marginal increase.

The more important factor is what can each software do? To put it simple, CheqEssentials can do everything ClickCease can do, and more. So what can ClickCease do?

ClickCease monitors your traffic, detects fraud, and excludes those IPs in your ad accounts. At a fundamental level, that’s what both platforms do. Where CHEQ Essentials wins out, is if you need to use Performance Max campaigns.

Cheq Essentials has the capability to use Negative Audience Exclusions, which is another way to exclude traffic, that ClickCease doesn’t do. This functionality works with Performance Max campaigns, which are prone to spam traffic.

So, in my opinion, if you’re planning on using performance max campaigns, I’d recommend CHEQ Essentials. If you’re not using them (and don’t plan to), then I’d use ClickCease and save some money. I have also noticed that I seem to get more refunds from ClickCease anyways, but it’s a small data sample so don’t quote me on that 😉

Is Are Click Prevention Softwares Worth the Investment?

For these clients, the upfront cost is easily justified by the 15-30% savings in ad budget. For accounts experiencing high click fraud, this tool can quickly pay for itself by preventing budget waste, getting more refunds, and improving lead quality. In fact, more times than not he refunds from Google pays for the software, and the more efficient ads are icing on the cake (which is has a bigger impact overall too).

Maximize Your Google Ads Budget with CHEQ Essentials

If you’re focused on optimizing your ad spend and achieving better lead quality, implementing a click fraud prevention solution can make a big difference. For many advertisers, especially those managing larger budgets or dealing with lead quality concerns, these tools provide a powerful solution for improving ROI.

Ready to reclaim control over your ad budget? Start by reviewing your adjustments in Google Ads and evaluate whether fraudulent clicks could be impacting your results. With tools like CHEQ Essentials, you can ensure that your budget is spent on legitimate, high-quality clicks that drive real results.


Interested in learning more about click fraud, or improving lead quality? Reach out, and I’d be happy to provide a free consultation.

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