Whitelisting plays a critical role in click fraud protection by ensuring that valuable, positive users and placements are not inadvertently blocked by Ads Defender’s protection methods. The goal is to distinguish between unwanted traffic and legitimate users or placements to safeguard essential customer journeys and ad performance.
Why Whitelisting is Important
In click fraud prevention, blocking unwanted traffic and placements is crucial to protect your ad budget. However, there are users, placements, and audiences whose activity or exposure is beneficial. Whitelisting allows Ads Defender to:
Preserve valuable traffic and placements by excluding trusted users or websites/apps from being flagged or blocked.
Ensure uninterrupted user experience for genuine customers.
Dynamically adapt to users’ behavior, recognizing valuable interactions in real time.
Types of Whitelisting in Ads Defender
Ads Defender offers four main types of whitelisting:
Dynamic Whitelisting (Event-Based)
Static IP Whitelisting
Static Placement Whitelisting
Audience Whitelisting
1. Dynamic Whitelisting (Event-Based)
Dynamic whitelisting provides flexibility and automation by allowing users to embed a whitelisting event on specific parts of their website. This ensures that users who demonstrate valuable behavior (such as completing a purchase) are automatically recognized and excluded from being flagged or blocked.
How It Works:
Users place a whitelisting event snippet on key conversion pages or important parts of the customer journey.
Common placements include:
Order confirmation pages
Thank you pages
Shopping cart pages
Lead generation form submissions
What Happens When the Whitelisting Event is Triggered?
Clicks from that user are subtracted from the unqualified click count.
Immediate Removal from Blocking Methods
2. Static IP Whitelisting
Static IP whitelisting ensures that specific IP addresses are permanently excluded from blocking measures.
Use Cases:
Whitelisting internal company IPs to prevent accidental blocking of employee activity.
Ensuring partners or agencies are not flagged by Ads Defender.
How to Whitelist IP Addresses:
Navigate to Click Fraud Settings:
Go to Click Fraud > Settings > Whitelist IPs.
Add IP Address:
Enter the IP address you wish to whitelist.
Provide a Reason:
A text field is required to explain why the IP is being whitelisted.
Example:
IP Address:
192.168.1.1Reason: “Internal office IP – prevent blocking of internal test clicks.”
3. Static Placement Whitelisting
Static placement whitelisting allows you to whitelist specific websites or apps where you want ads to appear, even if Ads Defender considers the placement low quality.
Use Cases:
Advertisers may want to appear on certain websites despite lower traffic quality indicators.
Partner sites or industry-specific platforms that are vital to the campaign.
How to Whitelist Placements:
Method 1: Via Settings
Go to Click Fraud Settings:
Navigate to Click Fraud > Settings > Whitelist Placements.
Add Placement:
Paste the URL or app ID of the placement you wish to whitelist.
Method 2: Via Metrics View
Open the Metrics View:
Go to Click Fraud > Metrics View > Placements
Toggle Whitelist:
Next to each placement, there is a whitelist toggle.
Activating this toggle immediately whitelists the placement.
4. Audience Whitelisting
Audience whitelisting allows you to control how Ads Defender handles users who have converted or interacted positively with your site. This prevents valuable users from being excluded from future ads.
How It Works:
Users who convert are removed from exclusion lists, ensuring they continue to see your ads.
Ads Defender can whitelist past conversions, even those that occurred before Ads Defender was implemented. This allows for a comprehensive look-back window.
Whitelisting Options:
None:
No users are subtracted from audience exclusion lists.
Recommended:
Only hard conversions (e.g., purchases or high-value leads) are subtracted from exclusion lists.
All Conversions:
All users who convert (regardless of conversion type) are removed from audience exclusion lists.
How to Whitelist Audiences:
Go to Click Fraud Settings:
Navigate to Click Fraud > Settings > Whitelist Audiences.
Select Whitelisting Level:
Choose from None, Recommended, or All.
Best Practices for Whitelisting
Dynamic Whitelisting for Conversions:
Place the whitelisting event on thank you, checkout, or lead confirmation pages.
Whitelist Placements Strategically:
Use placement whitelisting sparingly for critical sites or apps that are valuable to your ad performance.
Audit and Document:
Regularly review IPs, placements, and audiences in the whitelist settings and provide documentation for each entry.