A Developer Spent CA$220 on Google App Campaigns and 77% of the Billed Installs Were Bots

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In a September 11, 2026 writeup, the developer behind Dayzle ran CA$40-80 daily budgets for two weeks and was billed for 56 installs while the admin panel showed 13 real users. The tell was 20 devices running an obsolete app version not available through the Play Store, spanning 28 phone models across 19 states, each opening the app exactly once, spending zero seconds on screen, and never returning. Counting 33 bot installs plus 7 mis-targeted ones, roughly 77% of billed installs were worthless; the author has filed Google's invalid-traffic form and is still waiting on an answer.