Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads Click Fraud: What Each Lets You Do

Microsoft Ads vs Google Ads click fraud is less a question of which platform has more of it and more a question of what each one lets you do about it. The bots are the same bots. The competitor clicking your law firm's ads on Google is often clicking them on Bing too. What changes from one platform to the other is the set of controls, the size of the limits, and how much of the work software is allowed to do for you.

This page puts the two side by side, control by control, so you know what to expect on each and where the gaps are.

The Short Version

The row that matters most is the API one. It decides whether blocking can be automatic.

IP Exclusions: 500 Against 100

Both platforms let you stop your ads from showing to an IP address at the campaign level, and on both the block happens before the auction, so nothing gets billed. The capacity is where they split. Google allows 500 entries per campaign. Microsoft allows 100, IPv4 only, with a wildcard permitted only in the last part of the address.

In practice that means a Google list can hold a few months of repeat offenders, while a Microsoft list has to be ranked and rotated. On Microsoft, every slot has to go to the addresses doing the most damage right now. We lay out that workflow in our guide to Microsoft Ads click fraud and the 100-address limit, and the Google version is in Google Ads IP exclusions: the complete guide.

Automation: The Biggest Difference

Google Ads lets approved software write IP exclusions into your campaigns through its API. That is what makes automatic click fraud protection possible on Google: a flagged source can be excluded minutes after it clicks, without anyone opening the account.

Microsoft Advertising has no API for IP exclusions. The setting exists only in the interface, so every tool in this category does the same thing on Microsoft: it detects and flags automatically, then hands you a list to paste into the campaign settings. If a vendor tells you it blocks Microsoft clicks automatically by IP, ask how.

The practical effect is a lag. On Google a repeat clicker can be shut out the same day. On Microsoft it stays live until someone pastes the next list, which is why a weekly refresh habit matters more there.

Seeing the Click: gclid and msclkid

Neither platform tells you the IP address behind a click. Both attach a click ID to the landing page URL when auto-tagging is on: gclid on Google, msclkid on Microsoft. That ID is what lets a tracking layer tie a visit on your site back to a specific paid click, and then look at the visitor's address, device and behavior.

On Google, auto-tagging is on by default in most accounts. On Microsoft it is a setting you should check. Without the click ID, Microsoft visits look like ordinary Bing traffic and fraud detection has nothing to anchor to. If you tag URLs by hand, keep the UTM values consistent so paid Microsoft traffic can still be separated out.

Built-In Filtering and Credits

Both platforms filter part of the invalid traffic on their own and credit it back. Google calls it invalid clicks. Microsoft sorts clicks into standard-quality, low-quality and invalid, and says you are only billed for standard-quality clicks, with automatic credits when it later finds invalid ones.

On both, the credit comes after the fact and without detail. You see a number, not the list of clicks behind it, and the source is free to come back tomorrow. Filtering is a floor. It does not replace excluding the repeat sources yourself. Our piece on what Google's invalid click refunds cover goes into this for Google, and the Microsoft side is in how to read your Microsoft Ads invalid click report.

Partner Traffic

Both platforms show search ads beyond their own search engine. On Google that is the search partner network, which you can switch off with a checkbox in campaign settings. Microsoft works differently. You choose between the full Microsoft Advertising network and a narrower option limited to Microsoft sites and select partner traffic, and you can exclude individual websites that show up in the Website URL (publisher) report.

If most of your junk clicks trace back to partner placements rather than the search engine itself, this setting can do more than any IP list. Check the publisher report before assuming the problem is a person.

Which Platform Is Worse for Click Fraud?

Neither, in any way you can measure from the outside. Both run large partner networks, both attract bots, and both filter a share of it. What we can say is that Microsoft gives you fewer and smaller controls, so an unprotected Microsoft account tends to stay exposed longer. The same bad source that a Google tool excludes the same day can keep clicking a Microsoft campaign until the list is refreshed.

The fair comparison is not which one has more fraud. It is how fast each one lets you shut a source out once you have found it.

Running Both Without Doubling the Work

• Use one detection layer across both platforms, so a source flagged on Google is already known when it shows up on Microsoft.
• Let Google exclusions run automatically, since the API allows it.
• Paste the Microsoft list weekly, ranked by flagged clicks, and keep it inside 100 entries.
• Review partner and publisher traffic on both platforms once a month.
• Judge success by cost per real lead, not by click counts.

How Block Click Fraud Covers Both

Block Click Fraud checks every paid click from both platforms with the same rules. On Google Ads, flagged sources go into your IP exclusion lists automatically. On Microsoft Ads (monitoring + block list), you get a paste-ready list in Microsoft's format: up to 100 IPv4 entries, ranked by flagged clicks, with blocks collapsed to a wildcard only where no clean click came from them. See how it works or the plans.