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Switch blocking on or off: what changes in your ad accounts

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Blocking is one switch per rule set: Monitor-only. Turning it off starts blocking; turning it back on returns to monitoring and removes the exclusions Tapper wrote. Why a new workspace starts in monitor-only: Monitor-only: why nothing is blocked yet and what changes when blocking starts.

The Monitor-only switch on the Monitor-only tab of a rule set, off, with its Recommended: Off chip

Where the switch is

  1. If your workspace has more than one protected entity, pick it in the switcher at the top of the sidebar.
  2. In the sidebar, under Setup, click Rule sets, and select the set. The default set applies where no other set is linked.
  3. Open the Monitor-only tab. Off means blocking, on means monitor-only. The switch saves on click.

Only an Owner, Admin or Manager can change it, and only on a paid plan. A rule set blocks the traffic it covers as soon as its switch is off. The entity counts as monitor-only only when every live rule set, including the default, has the switch on. Its status chip (in the entity switcher and on Protected entities) reads Protected or Monitor-only.

Turning blocking on

Tapper records the moment blocking started and enforces detections from then on. Clicks recorded while the entity was monitor-only are not pushed to your ad accounts.

Each new detection becomes an exclusion on the platform the click came from:

  • Google Ads: an IP exclusion on your Search, Display, Shopping and Demand Gen campaigns, pushed per flagged click, and the visitor added to the lists Tapper created at connect time, which are excluded on Search, Display, Shopping, Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns. Tapper also attaches its value rule exclusion to Search, Display and Shopping campaigns and writes placement exclusions to the account-level list. Shadow campaigns exist only where you created one.
  • Meta Ads: the visitor joins the "Tapper - Invalid Traffic Audience" custom audience, excluded on every ad set whose Protection switch is on.
  • TikTok Ads: Tapper records the invalid traffic and sends it through your TikTok Pixel. It writes nothing to your ad groups.
  • Microsoft Ads: the visitor joins Tapper's audience, excluded on every campaign whose Protection switch is on.

Once no entity with a connected ad account is still monitor-only (on a paid plan), the Monitor-only notice goes away, the sidebar row Flagged traffic reads Exclusions again and the dashboard tiles use their blocking names. Google in detail: What happens when Tapper excludes an IP in Google Ads.

Switching back to monitor-only

Tapper stops enforcing what it detects. Once the whole entity is monitor-only, it removes the exclusions it placed from its own detections and keeps the setup it needs to go on measuring.

Removed from your ad accountsKept in place
IP exclusions Tapper wrote to Google campaignsThe account-level Google Ads tracking template
Audience exclusions on Google campaignsThe conversion actions Tapper created in Google Ads, and Tapper's Google user lists and audiences themselves
Value-rule exclusionsThe IPs you typed by hand on Setup > Excluded IPs: they keep being pushed to Google Search, Display and Shopping campaigns
Placement exclusionsDetection, the dashboard, the Clicks page, the Flagged traffic page and monthly reports, with the monitor-only labels
Audience exclusions on Meta ad sets and Microsoft Ads campaigns (on Meta, their Protection switches turn off)The Meta, TikTok and Microsoft Ads audiences themselves (on TikTok Ads, nothing was excluded), and any shadow campaign you created

To have nothing at all written to Google while you monitor, clear your Excluded IPs list too (Manually exclude IP addresses and ranges).

Turning blocking on again

Nothing from before is re-applied. Tapper does not restore the IP or placement exclusions it removed; blocking resumes with the next detection. Only the exclusion of Tapper's audiences and value rule on your protected Google campaigns comes back by itself.

Then check two places:

  • On the Google Ads page of Setup > Ad accounts, Campaigns tab: the chips Audience Exclusion, Audience Segment Exclusion and Value Rule Exclusion on each row. Turning a campaign's Protection switch off removes Tapper's audience exclusions and value rules; turning it on re-applies them.
  • On the Ad sets tab (Meta Ads), switch Protection back on for every ad set you want protected; nothing turns them on automatically. Protect all does it in one step for the current filter.

Who cannot turn blocking on

  • Free trial, or no paid plan: the switch cannot be turned off. In Settings, Billing, Talk to sales opens the Plans page and its Book a call button.
  • Lift only workspaces: blocking needs Block, part of the Block, Vantage and Enterprise plans. You can change products under Settings, General, Products only while no ad account is connected; afterwards, contact Tapper. See Lift only: what your workspace includes and leaves out.

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