A developer spent money on Google Ads and got a bot farm

If you pay Google for app installs, more than half of those paid downloads might be coming from robots.

The developer of puzzle app Dayzle set up a Google Ads campaign on Android. Over two weeks, Google billed for 56 downloads—but raw analytics revealed 33 were automated bots and 7 came from untargeted countries. The bots watched the shortest ad video, skipped clicking it, and installed a saved copy of the app off-store to spoof Google's conversion tracking.

Why it matters: Google's algorithm optimizes for whatever goal you set. Because the bot farm kept "installing" the app, Google's system treated the fake traffic as a win and funneled more ad budget straight back to the farm.

If you run app campaigns, track meaningful in-app actions instead of simple installs. Dayzle's creator switched the campaign target from opening the app to "won a puzzle"—it takes a lot more effort to script a Sudoku win than to launch a screen.

If a bot farm can spot a tiny $40-a-day ad budget, it can definitely spot yours.