Google has a new enemy: the fat finger.
As a result, the Internet search giant and Android powerhouse is looking to dramatically reduce the rate of accidental mobile ad clicks, a phenomenon that Google says is bad the user, the publisher, and the advertiser who pays for clicks that may not be valuable.
Allen Huang, Product Manager for Mobile Display Ads at Google says on the Google Blog that his team “has been analyzing the types of ad formats where accidental clicks are more likely to occur due to ad layout and placement, and are constantly looking at ways that we can combat them.”
Today, we’re introducing confirmed clicks into all in-app image ad banners on smartphones, which reduces accidental clicks by prompting the user to confirm that they intended to click on the ad. We find that most accidental clicks on in-app image ads happen at the outer edge of the ad unit, likely when you’re trying to click or scroll to nearby content. Now if you click on the outer border of the ad, we’ll prompt you to verify that you actually meant to click on the ad to learn more.
Google says the change will result in improved user experiences consistent across the vast majority of the ads that Google serves in mobile apps.