Monitor-only: why nothing is blocked yet and what changes when blocking starts
On this page
Invalid clicks on your dashboard but no exclusions in your ad accounts means monitor-only. It is normal for a new workspace: Tapper Block records invalid traffic from day one and excludes it once blocking is on.
How it works
Monitor-only is a switch on the Monitor-only tab of each rule set (Setup > Rule sets).
- Every new rule set starts with it on, the default set included. Nothing is blocked until someone turns it off.
- Blocking is a paid feature. During the free trial, and while no paid plan is active, it cannot be turned off. To move to a paid plan, open Settings > Billing > Talk to sales, which opens Plans and its Book a call button.
- An entity is monitor-only only while every live rule set is. Once one set has it off, the entity blocks the traffic that set covers.
Mobile app rule sets have the same tab: "When on, Tapper records what it detects for the apps this set judges and never rejects an install."
What you see in Tapper
Nothing reads as blocked when nothing is:
| Where | In monitor-only | Once blocking is on |
|---|---|---|
| Top of every page | A notice that cannot be closed: Monitor-only, "Tapper records invalid clicks on this workspace but doesn't block them." | No notice |
| Sidebar, Block section | Flagged traffic | Exclusions |
| The entity's status chip | Monitor-only | Protected |
| Dashboard tile Total Blocked | Total Invalid | Total Blocked |
| Dashboard tile IP-Blocked Visitors | IP-Flagged Visitors | IP-Blocked Visitors |
| Dashboard tile Audience Blocks | Invalid Audience Exclusion Users | Audience Blocks |
| Dashboard tile Reallocated Spend | Wasted Spend, shown in red | Reallocated Spend |
| Dashboard filter and chart Block reason | Invalid traffic reason | Block reason |
| Clicks page column and filter | Invalid traffic | Block reason, Blocked |
| Monthly report cards | Wasted Clicks, Wasted Spend | Blocked Clicks, Reallocated Spend |
The notice shows whenever an entity with a connected ad account is monitor-only, never on Lift only. Without an active plan, Tapper shows Your plan instead: see Your free trial has ended or a payment failed. Flagged traffic lists the visitors Tapper would have excluded, so you can review them before blocking.
What still happens in monitor-only
No IP, audience or placement exclusions from Tapper's detections go to your ad accounts. These keep working:
- Your hand-entered IPs on Setup > Excluded IPs are still pushed to Google Search, Display and Shopping campaigns. Use them with care: they are the only exclusions written.
- The Google Ads tracking template and conversion actions stay in place, so click data keeps flowing.
- Detection and reporting: the dashboard, Clicks page, Invalid Traffic page and monthly reports fill up as usual, with the labels above.
What changes when blocking starts
On a paid plan, an Owner, Admin or Manager opens the rule set in Setup > Rule sets and turns Monitor-only off on its tab. It saves on click. Tapper then acts on new detections for the traffic that set covers: IP, audience and placement exclusions on Google Ads; its invalid traffic audience excluded on Meta ad sets whose Protection is on; on TikTok Ads, recording continues and ad groups stay as they are. Clicks recorded while monitor-only are not acted on. Repeat for every rule set you want to block on.
Turn the switch back on and Tapper removes the exclusions it placed. What is retracted and what stays: Switch blocking on or off.
Lift only workspaces
A Lift only workspace has no blocking. Its entities stay monitor-only, with no notice and no Exclusions or Clicks rows. Blocking needs Block, part of the Block, Vantage and Enterprise plans; see Lift only.
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