Banner Ads touch down registers as clicks

[justiny-b]

Hello all,

I currently work on an app using GAM with standard banner (300x250), custom native, and programmatic native ads.
All of these ads are in a tableView like the example here.
We have users that are reporting that touching down on ads immediately sends them to a browser or it registers as a click.

We also found a forum post with the representatives stating that it's an intended behavior.
https://groups.google.com/g/google-admob-ads-sdk/c/wI__HKDqyXc/m/X41d43UdBAAJ
If it is an intended behavior, is there a way to turn this off? or disable these types of ads?
We have disabled bidders with high # of CTR but more bidders with these ad types are coming through. Also, we cannot find an option to disable these programmatic banner ad types.

FYI, html 5 banner works perfectly fine and the confirmed click is working as well. Only the programmatic image banner has the touch down click issue.

I've attached a video below, you can see the little caesar's pizza instantly navigate to a website on touch down :(

RPReplay_Final1718076369.mov

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b

Give me some time to research this issue, and I will get back to you.

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b do you have a charles log demonstrating click recorded on "touch down"?

https://developers.google.com/admob/android/charles

[justiny-b]

bingo-cash.txt
@NVentimiglia
Well i have the charles log of the actual ad response itself.

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b

What are your replication steps. I took our example, added bannerViewDidRecordClick, and was unable to see any log messages when long pressing on the image. I did see the log message when tapping on release.

[justiny-b]

@NVentimiglia
The accidental click happens when the banner is added as a tableViewCell. I have not tested with a static banner without tableview.

It's to have the finger down on the image but scroll up and let go. This triggers a click when it shouldn't.

[justiny-b]

Hi @NVentimiglia,
Just wondering if you were able to replicate it in tableview

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b

I was not able to replicate this issue. The click did not trigger an onclick event for me on mouse down.

Please try the updated InlineAdaptiveBanner Sample

https://github.com/googleads/googleads-mobile-ios-examples/tree/main/Swift/advanced/InlineAdaptiveBannerExample

[justiny-b]

@NVentimiglia
So it looks like this is inline adaptive banner, and not the regular banner ads that are 300x250.
I think it was 100% replicable for us in the regular banner ads. 🤔

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b

I modified the sample to use a fixed sized banner and I am still not seeing the issue.

[justiny-b]

@NVentimiglia
hmm tbh, Idk what the difference is. I'm using the same code in the example and swapping out ad response with https://github.com/user-attachments/files/15997211/bingo-cash.txt
this through proxy, and I can replicate the accidental issue 100% of the time.
I'm having my finger on the ads while i'm scrolling up and down, and it registers as a click.

The creatives that are allowed in GAM has javascript code that calls the JSI on touch down, I'm wondering if GAM could somehow remove these creatives automatically as they have ridiculously high CTR?

[NVentimiglia]

@justiny-b

That sounds very plausible. I would do a manual review of your creatives. If that fails, reach out to the Ad Manager SDK team and provide a link to this discussion and your suspicion that this might be creative related.

https://developers.google.com/ad-manager/mobile-ads-sdk/support