A few wasted clicks here and there — no big deal, right? But what happens when your campaign starts showing a high conversion rate and yet your leads are complete junk? Fake form fills, bad emails, unresponsive “customers” — it’s a nightmare that can take down a Google Ads account.
That’s exactly what happened to me recently while managing two service-based accounts — one for a roofing company and another for a plumbing business. You can see the whole story in the video above. Both were in large metropolitan areas. The strange part wasn’t just the low-quality leads; it was that these campaigns looked amazing on paper — 20% to 30% conversion rates, solid CTRs, and what seemed like great engagement. But behind the numbers, the story was very different.
When High Conversions Don’t Mean Success
At first glance, a 30% conversion rate sounds like a dream. But when my clients called to say none of the leads were real, my success bubble burst. The first thing I noticed was that every “conversion” was a form submission — not a single phone call. That’s unusual in home service industries, where most customers prefer to pick up the phone.
When I looked closer, I found something even more suspicious: all the form submissions had names and email addresses, but not a single message. No project details, no addresses, no context — nothing. Just empty forms with semi-believable names like “Lori Miner,” and sometimes even date fields set in the future. Clearly, these weren’t genuine leads.
The Search Term Pattern That Raised Red Flags
When I dug into the search terms, I noticed another pattern. The “converting” searches were all extremely similar — phrases like “plumber in Glendale California” or “roof repair in Chicago Illinois.” Normally, you’d expect a mix of different searches in your conversion data. But in this case, the same small set of keyword phrases was converting over and over, almost at a 100% rate. That’s not normal — that’s suspicious.
Standard Fixes That Didn’t Work
The logical first step was to tighten form protection. I added spam filters, CAPTCHA, and anti-bot tools. But here’s the twist — these “spam” conversions weren’t necessarily bots. I assume they are automated to some degree but when turning on CAPTCHA protection, they still were coming through. Even if some were blocked, it doesn’t reassure me that the clicks aren’t draining my budget. It would just hide the evidence if form submissions were being blocked successfully.
To counter that, I tried tools like ClickCease, which helps block fraudulent clicks by monitoring suspicious IP addresses. While it did help reduce junk traffic, it didn’t completely solve the problem. The fake leads kept coming, and the spend kept climbing.
That’s when I started looking deeper into where exactly this traffic was coming from.
The Hidden Culprit: Google Search Partners
While most advertisers focus on search campaigns running directly on Google.com, there’s another setting that can quietly wreak havoc — Search Partners. It’s a checkbox under your campaign’s “Networks” settings labeled Include Google Search Partners.
Search Partners are third-party websites that show Google Ads. They extend your reach beyond Google’s own search engine. In theory, this sounds great — more visibility at a lower cost. But in practice, they can often be a source of low-quality traffic.
When I segmented my campaign performance by network, I discovered something alarming. Nearly half of the spend — and almost all of the suspicious conversions — were coming from Search Partners. That explained everything.
Why Search Partners Can Be a Problem
In most of my campaigns, Search Partner traffic only makes up about 5% of impressions. But in these problem accounts, it had spiked to nearly 50%. That’s a big red flag.
Here’s what I (and many other advertisers online) suspect is happening:
Some third-party partners in Google’s ad network might be abusing the system. They could be generating low-quality clicks and even fake conversions to make their traffic look valuable to win themselves more traffic. When your campaign is using an automated bid strategy like Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value, Google’s algorithm naturally prioritizes sources that appear to produce conversions. If a bad partner fakes conversions, your campaign unknowingly sends more of your budget their way — effectively rewarding the fraud.
That means your ads keep spending on the same bad traffic, your reports look “successful,” but your clients are left with fake leads.
The Fix That Finally Worked
After weeks of investigation, disabling Search Partners in the campaign immediately improved lead quality. The conversion rate normalized, and spam leads dropped significantly.
However, this wasn’t the only issue. I noticed that Performance Max (PMax) campaigns were also producing questionable leads. In two separate accounts, the majority of spam conversions seemed to come through these automated PMax campaigns.
One client decided to pause PMax entirely — and the fake leads stopped. But they also lost some good leads, so we turned it back on later, balancing the risk/reward. Interestingly, after about three to four weeks, the spam leads just stopped. I’m not sure why exactly but it does seem the bad traffic from Pmax is worse in the beginning stage of the campaign.
Are These Conversions Human or Bot-Generated?
It’s difficult to say. Some form submissions look too human to be bots — legitimate-looking names, realistic emails, even matching phone numbers. But none of the numbers work, and none of the people respond. So it could be that humans are being paid (or incentivized) to fill out forms. More likely is it’s bot/AI traffic.
How to Protect Your Google Ads Account
Here’s a summary of practical steps you can take if you’re seeing suspicious leads or fake conversions in your campaigns:
- Turn off Search Partners
Go to your campaign settings → Networks → Uncheck Include Google Search Partners.
Monitor your traffic and conversion quality after making this change. - Review Performance Max Campaigns
Temporarily pause PMax campaigns and see if the fake leads stop. If they do, you’ve found the source. - Use Fraud Protection Tools
Apps like ClickCease or PPC Protect can help identify and block bad IP addresses. - Add Spam Protection to Forms
Always use Google reCAPTCHA or form validation tools to reduce bot activity. - Monitor Referral URLs
Some fake conversions come from “google syndication” domains or custom search engines embedded in other sites. Keep an eye out for these in your analytics. - Report to Google Ads Support
Even if their first response is generic, reporting the issue creates data points that can help Google investigate patterns of abuse.
Final Thoughts
It’s frustrating when you do everything right — great keywords, solid ad copy, optimized landing pages — only to see your ROI tank because of fake conversions. But the good news is that you’re not alone, and there are solutions.
Turning off Search Partners, tightening spam filters, and monitoring your campaign data closely can make a huge difference. Most importantly, stay patient. Google’s ad ecosystem is massive, and while it’s not perfect, the company does continuously fight click fraud and spam abuse behind the scenes.
If you’ve been dealing with the same issue — fake leads that look real, form submissions without context, or sudden spikes in “too good to be true” conversions — take a close look at your Search Partners and Performance Max settings.
Sometimes, the solution isn’t more automation — it’s knowing when to turn it off.