Sometimes, everything on our end is working perfectly — GEO is correct, IP is valid, targeting is spot-on.
And yet the advertiser’s system still blocks the click as invalid.
Why?
Let’s take a closer look at one very real case from our clients who buy traffic — including popunder traffic — programmatically via XML feed, using the AdKernel platform.

Here’s a simplified version of how the traffic flows:

➡️You send a request to our feed — the request contains the user’s IP.
➡️We respond with a matching ad, based on GEO targeting and IP data.
➡️The click comes back — but the IP logged on the advertiser’s side is slightly different from the original request.
➡️The advertiser's system marks it as a mismatch and rejects it, even though it came from the correct country and region.

This can happen when:
➡️The first few digits of the IP match (correct country, correct region),
➡️But the last digits differ slightly — due to NAT, mobile carrier routing, or acceleration proxies like Google Web Light.
➡️To us, the GEO targeting is accurate.
➡️But the advertiser's system sees two different IPs and assumes the click is invalid — even if both IPs point to Brooklyn, New York, just from slightly different ranges.

Real feedback from XML + AdKernel clients

“The issue was that the last digits of the IP differ from the request IP.
The mismatch was minor — same city, same region — but the click was rejected.
We applied a new filter that only blocks clicks if the IP belongs to another country, not just another street.
After that, the performance and acceptance rate improved significantly.”

In other words: the old filter was too strict, blocking valid clicks because of internal IP variation.
After relaxing the rule to check for country and city only — not the full IP — they saw better results and fewer rejected clicks.

What this means for advertisers
If you’re working with XML feeds or real-time traffic via platforms like AdKernel, keep this in mind:
Slight IP variations don’t always mean fraud or GEO mismatch.
Filtering too aggressively may cost you valuable clicks.
Advertisers who buy traffic — especially through an ad network — should consider adjusting logic to allow minor IP differences within the same GEO.
We’re always ready to help analyze, explain, or share logs to make sure you only filter what truly needs filtering.
This is especially important when working with popunder traffic, where routing variations are more common.

Better filters = better traffic = better results.
Let’s keep it smart with Trafficshop — a trusted ad network.

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