#inavlid traffic

Are you proactively analyzing the ad traffic of your campaigns?  

Is it really coming from genuine users or just being generated by bots? 

Yes, a significant portion of traffic that makes your ad campaigns seem successful could be invalid traffic. According to mFilterIt’s analysis featured in FICCI Report 2025, invalid traffic contributes to as much as 30–50% of activity across digital channels, directly distorting performance metrics and draining ad budgets. 

This means the performance you see on dashboards may not always reflect real user intent. Instead, it could be influenced by automated systems, proxies, or manipulated interactions that inflate impressions, clicks, and even conversions. 

In this blog, we break down what invalid traffic really is, why it’s increasing, differences between general invalid traffic and sophisticated invalid traffic, and how you can identify and mitigate its impact to ensure your campaigns deliver genuine results. 

What is Invalid Traffic? Why is it Increasing Rapidly?

Invalid traffic simply means ad activity that doesn’t come from real users but still shows up as genuine impressions, clicks, or visits. This happens when bots or automated systems interact with ads, making it look like people are engaging when they actually aren’t. 

Over time, this traffic has become more advanced and harder to spot. Bots now easily mimic real user behaviour, such as browsing pages, scrolling, or clicking on ads.  Moreover, developments in technology, AI usage, and advertising infrastructure also contribute to this. Here’s how: 

AI is making bots smarter

Earlier, bots were easy to detect because they behaved like machines. Today, AI-powered bots can scroll, pause, click, and even mimic browsing patterns. Some can simulate entire user journeys, making fake engagement look real in analytics tools. 

The ad ecosystem has become more complex

Modern advertising runs through multiple layers and channels, DSPs, SSPs, ad exchanges, networks, and resellers. This fragmentation creates blind spots, making it easier for low-quality or fraudulent traffic to enter without being noticed. 

Cheap infrastructure fuels large-scale ad fraud

Server farms allow fraudsters to generate massive volumes of ad traffic at very low cost. What once required physical devices can now be scaled instantly using virtual environments. 

Limited transparency and visibility

Limited transparency and visibility across the digital ecosystem make it harder for advertisers to verify traffic quality. With restricted access to detailed user-level data, identifying whether engagement is coming from real users or sophisticated invalid traffic becomes more challenging. 

As long as advertisers pay based on clicks or impressions, there’s always a chance for misuse. Fraudsters take advantage of this by generating invalid clicks or views to earn money, especially when proper checks are not in place. 

Therefore, detecting invalid traffic has become more important than ever. Invalid traffic is generally classified into two main types: General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). 

Two Major Types of Invalid Traffic

Invalid traffic is broadly classified into two categories based on how complex the fraud technique is.  

What is General Invalid Traffic (GIVT)?

It refers to non‑human or automated interactions that inflate ad metrics, caused by easily identifiable bots, spiders, or crawlers. These bots typically do not attempt to mimic real human behavior. They’re not malicious in intent but can distort campaign reporting and waste ad spend due to their automated nature. 

Because the patterns are predictable, platforms and verification tools can often identify and block this traffic using ad fraud detection techniques.  Here’s what we observed in one of the campaigns .

In today’s digital marketing landscape, bots impacting your campaigns, website analytics, and overall performance is becoming an enormous issue with all the organizations running any kind of advertising campaign. To put a stop on the ad fraud that is caused by bots, having bot detection tools is vital.  After all, how can you put a stop to bots if you can’t detect.  

Unfortunately, many firms struggle to detect bot traffic, and the methods they employ are not all created equal. Choosing the right bot detection tool is essential for safeguarding your marketing efforts. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you select the best tool for your needs.

What Is Invalid Traffic and How Does It Relate to Bots? 

Bot fraud in digital advertising generally falls in the category of invalid traffic by the marketers no matter good or bad since the bots are not the target audience and cannot be converted into a protentional lead.  

Types of Invalid Traffic:   

General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) :

It is one of the simplest bots that can be detected easily, and a lot of good bots traffic comes under GIVT as they are not meant to fool the bot detection tool. But some fraudsters may also deploy GIVT as they are easy to make and work against some of their targets.  

Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) :

 SIVT detection is the bots that one should look out for as these are more capable and are often designed to target to bypass cybersecurity and ad fraud prevention tool. For Example – sophisticated bots might imitate how a human would use a website so it would be difficult to identify between a human and bot. SIVT is common in ad fraud schemes.

How Bots Impact Your Marketing Campaigns 

Bots can have a negative impact on your digital marketing campaigns in several ways: 

Wasted ad spend

Bots can boost your impressions and clicks, resulting in ad spend burn. For example, if you bid on a brand term that costs $1 per click and a click bots on your ad 1000 times, you would have wasted $1000. 

Inaccurate reporting

These bots can alter your reporting data, making it nearly impossible to track the actual performance of your campaigns. For Example, if a bot is boosting your impressions by 50%, your CTR will appear to be much higher than it is.  

Damage to your brand

So, if your brands are revealed to internet bots, it might damage your brand reputation. For example, if a bot clicks on your ad for a product the customer is not interested in, the user will consider your ad spam. 

the full insights, search for

One of the common pain points our clients have expressed is that their number of installs doesn’t match the number of conversions. They see a high volume of installs happening, but this doesn’t convert into outcomes.  

There is not just one reason behind an unusual spike in installs. It can be bots, or something more advanced which a human eye might miss easily. In one of a recent campaign data we evaluated, we observed that a new and unusual technique is used to hide invalid traffic driving fake app installs from Android mobile versions.  

In the sections ahead, we’ll break down how fraudsters are hiding their trails by spoofing device related information – like mobile app versions and why it matters more than you think.