I spent $220 on Google app ads. 60% of the installs were robots.
Summary
An SMB game developer reveals that a Google Ads campaign reported 21 installs, but the admin panel showed only 1; further investigation found the majority of installs were from bot activity. The piece analyzes how a bot farm can inflate install metrics, how Google’s optimization can unintentionally reward fraud, and the author’s plan to seek a refund, serving as a cautionary PSA for advertisers to validate install data beyond platform dashboards.