Generate a Google Ads refund report
The Refunds page builds the evidence for a Google Ads refund claim: a CSV of the invalid Google Ads clicks Tapper blocked on one protected entity, for up to 30 days. You attach it to your claim. How refunds for invalid clicks work explains what Google will and will not credit.
Before you start
- A protected entity with a Google Ads account connected.
- Any workspace role. Owner, Admin, Manager and Viewer can all generate and download reports.
- A plan with paid analytics, and Tapper Block.
Steps
- In the sidebar, under Block, click Refunds. The Google Refund Report form opens.
- If your workspace has two or more protected entities, choose one in the switcher under the workspace name. A report covers only that entity.
- Open Period and pick the days. The default is the last 30 days ending yesterday, in your workspace time zone. 30 days is the maximum. Google investigates clicks only up to 60 days old, so keep the most recent 30 days and file soon after.
- Under Block reason tiers, tick the tiers to include. Only Tier 1 is ticked at first.
| Tier | Reasons its label names |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 - High confidence | Five reasons, among them Bot, Data center, Known attacker and Location mismatch |
| Tier 2 - Supporting evidence | VPN, Proxy, Tor, Suspicious IP |
| Tier 3 - Weak signals | Suspicious click behavior, JavaScript disabled, Instant bounce |
Each tier holds more reasons than its label lists. Tier 2 and Tier 3 add clicks backed by weaker evidence. See Block reasons explained.
- Optional: tick Include potential click cost (adds a cost column per click and a total, using your configured CPCs).
- Optional: tick Include on-page behavior & fingerprint evidence (adds a behavior column and a fingerprint column; the report takes longer to generate).
- Click Generate report. It stays disabled until the period is 30 days or less and at least one tier is ticked.
What happens next
The report appears under Previous reports and moves through Queued, Preparing and Ready (or Failed). The list updates itself. Its columns are Date range (with a Cost tag if you added click cost), Status, Total rows (one per click), Size and Expires. The list shows reports for all entities in the workspace.
When the status reads Ready, click Download. The link lasts 7 days, then the report drops off the list, so keep your own copy with the claim.
What is in the file
One CSV named refund_google_<customer id>_<from>_<to>.csv, with one row per unique GCLID.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
gclid | Google's click ID |
ip | The visitor's IP address |
customer_id | Your Google Ads customer ID |
campaign | The campaign clicked |
happened_at | When the click happened, in UTC |
landing_page_url, user_agent, http_referrer | The landing page, the visitor's browser and the referring page |
block_reasons | Why Tapper flagged the click, limited to the tiers you ticked |
asn, asn_name, asn_type | The network the IP belongs to |
is_datacenter, is_vpn, is_anonymous, is_known_attacker, is_known_abuser, is_threat | Flags about the IP: data center, VPN, anonymous, known attacker, known abuser, threat |
The cost option adds a potential_click_cost column and a summary headed "GOOGLE ADS INVALID CLICK REFUND REPORT" with the total. That summary always says 30 days, even for a shorter period: use your period's dates (also in the file name) on Google's form. The behavior option adds events_summary and fingerprint_summary columns.
To file the claim, follow Request a refund from Google Ads for invalid clicks.
If something goes wrong
- "Date range cannot exceed 30 days." Shorten the period.
- Ready with 0 rows and "No blocked clicks found for the specified filters." No click matched your tiers on this entity. Tick more tiers, pick another period or check the entity.
- Failed. Generate it again. If it fails again, write to support@tapper.ai with the entity and the period.
- The report is gone from the list. Its link expired after 7 days. Generate it again.
- "Connect Google Ads to start protection" instead of the form: connect Google Ads to the entity. See Connect Google Ads.
- "No protected entities yet": create one and connect Google Ads to it. See Protected entities: what they are and how to add one.
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