How to Use BotRefund to Preserve Ad Identifiers for Refund Claims

Preserving identifiers with BotRefund means capturing and retaining all critical ad attribution data—including click IDs, GCLIDs, campaign IDs, placement details, and timestamps—before you make any changes to your ad campaigns or pause active ads. This retained data is required to prove that invalid bot traffic originated from a specific paid click, which is a mandatory condition for Google and Meta to approve invalid traffic refund claims. The setup takes 5–10 minutes, and once installed, BotRefund automatically preserves this data for every visitor session without manual work from your team.

If you pause a campaign or adjust targeting before capturing this attribution data, you will lose the link between suspicious bot sessions and the paid clicks that drove them, making refund claims impossible to file. BotRefund’s system ties every behavioral bot signal to the exact ad identifier that brought the visitor to your page, so you never have to manually match session data to campaign records.

What Preserving Identifiers Means for Ad Refund Claims

Ad identifiers are unique strings assigned to every paid click on Google and Meta platforms. For Google Ads, this is typically the GCLID (Google Click Identifier); for Meta, it is the click ID or fbclid parameter. These identifiers let you tie a specific website visit back to the exact ad, ad set, and campaign that generated the click.

When you file an invalid traffic refund claim, both platforms require proof that the suspicious traffic came from a paid click you were charged for. Without preserved identifiers, you cannot draw that line, and reviewers will reject your claim automatically. Preserving these identifiers is not optional for refund eligibility—it is a core requirement of both platforms’ dispute processes.

Why Identifier Preservation Matters for Invalid Traffic Disputes

Bot traffic often looks identical to low-quality human traffic in ad platform reports. You may see a steady cost per lead, but your sales team receives unreachable contacts, copied form submissions, or enquiries that never convert. Without preserved identifiers, you cannot prove these bad leads came from paid clicks you were billed for.

Common scenarios where missing identifiers ruin refund claims include:

• You pause an underperforming campaign before investigating lead quality, losing the link between bot sessions and the clicks that drove them
• Your CRM does not automatically capture click IDs from landing page URLs, so you have no record of which campaign generated a suspicious lead
• You adjust ad targeting or creative before filing a claim, making it impossible to prove the bot traffic occurred while the original ad was active

BotRefund eliminates these gaps by automatically capturing and storing identifiers the moment a visitor lands on your page, even if you later change or pause the campaign.

How BotRefund Captures and Retains Ad Identifiers

BotRefund’s script runs client-side on your landing pages the moment a visitor loads the page. It first extracts all available ad identifiers from the URL parameters, cookies, and referrer data, then ties those identifiers to a unique session ID for the visit.

As the visitor interacts with the page, BotRefund collects 110+ behavioral, browser, hardware, and network signals to determine if the session is automated. If the session is flagged as a bot, the full set of identifiers and behavioral evidence is stored in a refund-ready report that matches the format Google and Meta reviewers require.

This process does not interfere with your existing ad tracking, CRM, or edge protection tools. BotRefund runs alongside tools like Cloudflare, Google Analytics, and Meta Pixel without conflicting with their data collection.

Step-by-Step Setup to Preserve Identifiers with BotRefund

Follow these steps to start preserving ad identifiers for refund claims in 10 minutes or less:

1. Create a BotRefund account: Sign up for a free trial or paid plan on the BotRefund website. No credit card is required for the initial audit.
2. Install the BotRefund script on your landing pages: Copy the unique script snippet from your BotRefund dashboard and add it to the header of every landing page linked to your Google and Meta ad campaigns. The script works with all major website builders, including WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, and custom-coded sites.
3. Verify identifier capture: After installing the script, visit one of your ad landing pages via a test ad click. Check your BotRefund dashboard to confirm the click ID, GCLID, campaign name, and placement data are recorded for the test session.
4. Let the system run automatically: BotRefund will now capture and retain identifiers for every visitor session, flag bot traffic, and generate refund-ready reports when invalid traffic is detected. No further manual action is required unless you want to adjust detection sensitivity or export reports.

The most common mistake here is installing the script only on your homepage instead of all ad-linked landing pages. If a visitor lands on a page without the BotRefund script, no identifiers or session data will be captured for that visit.

Key Facts About BotRefund Identifier Preservation

Common Limitations and Exceptions

Identifier preservation with BotRefund only works for traffic that lands on pages with the installed script. If a bot clicks your ad but bounces before your landing page loads, or if the landing page is on a subdomain without the script, no identifiers will be captured for that visit.

BotRefund also cannot preserve identifiers for traffic that arrives via organic search, email, or direct visits, as these sources do not have paid ad click identifiers tied to them. The tool is designed exclusively for paid ad traffic on Google and Meta platforms.

Finally, while BotRefund’s reports are formatted to meet platform requirements, final refund approval is always at the discretion of Google and Meta review teams. BotRefund supports the claim process with evidence, but cannot guarantee a refund outcome.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to preserve identifiers for every ad campaign?

Yes, if you want to be eligible for invalid traffic refunds. Both Google and Meta require proof that suspicious traffic came from a specific paid click, which is only possible if you have preserved the associated ad identifier.

What happens if I lose ad identifiers before filing a claim?

If you pause a campaign, change targeting, or delete landing page data before capturing identifiers, you will not be able to tie bot sessions to paid clicks, and your refund claim will be rejected. BotRefund’s automatic capture eliminates this risk by storing identifiers as soon as a visitor lands on your page.

Does preserving identifiers affect my ad campaign performance?

No. The BotRefund script is lightweight (less than 10KB) and does not slow page load times or interfere with Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, or other ad tracking tools. It runs silently in the background of your landing pages.

How long does BotRefund store preserved identifiers?

BotRefund stores all captured identifiers and session data for 12 months, which covers the maximum lookback window for Google and Meta invalid traffic refund claims.

Can I use BotRefund to preserve identifiers for non-Meta and non-Google ad platforms?

Currently, BotRefund’s refund reporting is optimized for Google and Meta’s review processes. While the tool can capture identifiers for other ad platforms, the refund-ready reports are only guaranteed to meet Google and Meta’s requirements.