#bot fraud

Having a sound digital growth plan is perhaps the most surefire way for any modern business to succeed. Today, companies have several methods to generate leads at their disposal. They enjoy room for experimentation and finding a lead-generation tactic that suits their needs and abilities.

However, success with online lead generation heavily depends on the quality of leads. If a business manages to generate a large quantity of leads but the leads are fake or irrelevant, it can quickly lead to a different outcome.

Techniques used to commit lead generation fraud

1. Bot Fraud

Bot fraud is most prevalent in the case of cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-lead (CPL) lead generation campaigns. The fraudsters operate large networks of bots that they use to commit click fraud. However, the use of bots has been recorded in cases of social media fraud (generating fake engagement or followers). In other cases, bots have been used to fill fake information into lead generation forms. The ultimate objective of using bots is to generate a fake lead and attribute its credit to the fraudsters who get paid by the advertiser.

Bot fraud is one of the oldest techniques used by fraudsters and has evolved greatly over time. Modern-day bots are backed by complex algorithms that enable them to emulate human behavior and scam advertisers.

Let's put the brakes on bot fraud!

by Ari Jacoby, CEO

Cars have always been near and dear to my heart – if I didn’t live in Manhattan, I’d own several. As you can imagine, we are very excited to be participating at this conference, as automotive marketers are huge players in the digital advertising space. In fact, by 2015 the automotive industry will be second only to retail as digital advertising’s biggest investor. This puts the industry in a great position to take a fierce stance against bot fraud and viewability issues.

Solve Media puts out a bellwether industry market advisory every quarter. In Q1, we took a deep dive into the automotive vertical to see just how bad the fraud problem is for auto marketers. We recently revisited the auto vertical to pull the latest bot numbers, which you can see below. While suspicious traffic is still quite high, bot traffic fell below 10% on both the display and mobile platforms. At first blush, the numbers suggest some nominal progress, though we expect Q4 numbers will get worse as ad spend increases during the busy holiday season.

Alarmingly, the amount of suspicious mobile traffic nearly doubled between Q1 and Q3, though Q3 saw a dip in bot traffic in both desktop and mobile. US and global traffic saw a similar trend, the full results of which we will be releasing next month. We believe that, as the issue garners more attention, advertisers are taking action against bots and demanding that their agency partners buy more carefully, from higher quality partners.

Unfortunately, bot abuse is profitable and will be a long-term war. Automotive advertisers (and the advertising industry as a whole) must continue to take proactive measures to combat fraud. Along with seeking out engagement-based advertising, advertisers should consider asking their trading desks for verified human audience segments.

Back to school season is upon us! Here is what advertisers need to know about consumer buying habits. With spending estimated to reach $75 billion this year, 71% of agency media buyers are prioritizing keeping their clients' ads free of bot traffic.

Many advertisers are moving budgets online with the goal of making large, highly-automated ad buys at scale. However, one of the major hurdles is understanding the risks and finding ways to overcome them, specifically around bot fraud. Publications such as the WSJ, NYTimes, and Adweek have helped raise awareness around bot fraud and its economic impact, but the challenges remain.

  In July of 2014, Gene Munster and Douglas Clinton of Piper Jaffray & Co. published a report on understanding the challenges and scope of the bot problem in online advertising. Please read below.