Questions about Pay Per Click from a buyer perspective

Hi everyone,
I’m looking into Pay Per Click models and want to understand how things work on the buyer side before moving forward. There’s a lot of mixed information out there, so I’d like to hear practical opinions.
What should a buyer focus on when evaluating PPC traffic, and what are the usual red flags to avoid? Any general advice is welcome.

Check if the ppc traffic is all bots or real traffic. Read reviews about the ppc site. I know these ones have least bots. Google and bing(Microsoft) ads.
Before starting campaign find out how you can deal with bot traffic for Google ads if yout are using Google ads.
You can also try these. Pinterest and Reddit.
Taboola and outbrain are next best, they are native ads but they do have ppc.

From a buyer perspective the main focus should be traffic quality, not just cheap clicks, so always look at conversion rate, GEO consistency, device types, and how the traffic behaves after landing. Big red flags are unrealistically low CPC, zero engagement metrics, sudden traffic spikes, or sellers who can’t provide test samples or tracking transparency.

From a buyer perspective the main things to look at are traffic quality and transparency.

Ask where the traffic is coming from, how it’s generated, and if there are any filters for bots or low-quality clicks. Good providers should also be able to show basic stats like GEO, device type, and consistency of traffic.

Big red flags are extremely cheap clicks, vague traffic sources, and sellers who can’t explain how the traffic is produced.

Hey, as a buyer just watch where traffic comes from, is it real people or bots. Check conversion, not just clicks. Red flags are super cheap clicks, traffic from weird countries, or huge bounce rates. Start small, test traffic first, and scale only if it works. Keep it simple and track everything.

conversion rate will be my main focus, regardless of where the traffic is coming from