Bots and Scrapers and Data Centers, Oh My! The Growing Problem of Invalid Traffic A new report from cybersecurity company CHEQ reveals
that more than 40% of all online traffic is invalid, which means that billions of dollars are being wasted on fake traffic, and this invalid traffic can "pollute" audience data and cause marketers to miss out on revenue opportunities in the digital advertising industry.
Digital advertising is a massive industry, with global spending on ads surpassing $600 billion in 2022. However, a new report from cybersecurity company CHEQ reveals that more than 40% of all online traffic is invalid, which
means that billions of dollars are being wasted on fake traffic. This invalid traffic can "pollute" audience data and cause marketers to miss out on revenue opportunities. According to CHEQ's State of Fake Traffic 2023 report, 11.3% of all traffic in 2022 was fake, with 5.9% of paid traffic, 5.7% of organic traffic, and 22.1% of direct traffic being fake. The data shows that 1 in 10 visitors
was not authentic, and 1 in 50 visitors had malicious intent. This resulted in $35.7 billion of ad spend being wasted, and $142.8 billion in revenue being lost. The types of threats that contribute to fake traffic include data centers, automation tools, VPNs, scrapers, proxies, low-quality users, and malicious bots. The growth of fake traffic in 2022 was broad across all types, with click
hijacking attacks, malicious bot attacks, and web scraper attacks seeing the biggest increases. Referral sources like paid search ads also had high rates of fake traffic, with direct traffic being the biggest culprit at 22.1%. The top threats as a percentage of all fake traffic included automation tools, click hijacking, disabled JS, VPNs, scrapers, data centers, and malicious
bots. This report underscores the need for marketers to be vigilant about fake traffic and to take steps to weed out bots and other fake web activity. By doing so, they can ensure that their campaigns are optimized for real users and that they are not missing out on revenue opportunities. As digital advertising continues to grow, the issue of fake traffic will only become more important for
marketers to address. Invalid traffic not only impacts ad performance, but also impacts the way brands interact with users online. This often leads to fake leads, with more than 27% of leads being filled with bots that are entirely fake. The prevalence of invalid traffic has made it challenging for digital marketers to allocate their budgets effectively and optimize their campaigns for real
business opportunities. Despite the challenges posed by invalid traffic, digital marketers are experimenting with new technologies and strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Companies like mFilterIt are providing solutions to address the issue of invalid traffic. mFilterIt offers ad fraud solutions for app, web, lead, and programmatic advertising, and has helped companies like Tata Play
achieve a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 120% for their campaigns. Dhiraj Gupta, co-founder of ad fraud detection company mFilterIt, addressed the audience at the ad:tech New Delhi event in a session titled ‘Advertising Fearlessly’. He shed light on the challenges that digital marketers face due to invalid online traffic. Gupta explained that many of these issues have made advertisers cautious
in their selection of the right publishers for their ads in order to drive better performance. As the digital advertising industry continues to evolve, it is clear that invalid traffic will remain a significant issue for marketers. The key to success will be for companies to remain proactive in their efforts to detect and eliminate fake web activity. The use of advanced technologies such as
machine learning and artificial intelligence can help to identify fraudulent traffic and improve ad performance. Additionally, partnering with trusted publishers and advertising networks can help to minimize the risk of invalid traffic and ensure that marketing budgets are used effectively. It is also essential for brands to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments in the
digital advertising space. By staying informed about emerging threats and new technologies, marketers can adapt their strategies and stay ahead of the curve. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and brands that are agile and adaptable will be the ones that thrive in the years ahead. |
All the news you need today, in a format that isn't TL:DR, summarized for the busy executive.
Microsoft is planning to launch its own mobile games app store in 2024, which will give the company the opportunity to offer exclusive games like Call of Duty: Mobile, Candy Crush Saga, and Diablo Immortal. This move would allow Microsoft to compete with Apple and Google's app stores, which have been dominant in
the mobile gaming industry. Microsoft is currently waiting for regulatory clearance for its $75B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which would further strengthen its position in the mobile gaming market. This development may also provide a new advertising channel for businesses that currently use Microsoft Audience Network. Amazon CEO Andy
Jassy announced that the company will be laying off 9,000 more employees in the coming weeks, primarily in Amazon Web Services, advertising, the streaming site Twitch, and human resources. The layoffs add to the 18,000 employees that Amazon had already cut starting in November. This move is notable because AWS and advertising have been fast-growing, high-margin parts of Amazon’s business. Amazon will continue to do limited hiring in “strategic areas” of some businesses, according to
Jassy. Foot Locker has announced a new long-term strategy, titled “Lace Up,” to grow its business, which includes plans to expand sneaker culture and provide more choice, relaunching the brand and opening new store formats, resetting the loyalty program, and improving the customer experience online. To achieve this, Foot Locker will
close 400 mall stores and 125 Champs stores in North America by 2026, while also increasing the number of new format stores from about 120 to over 400 by 2026. These new formats include Foot Locker’s community stores, power stores, and house of play concept. The company aims to achieve 5-6% sales growth for fiscal years 2024 through 2026. CEO Mary Dillon also said she plans to revitalise Foot Locker's partnership with Nike, despite the brand moving away from wholesale channels to focus on
building out direct-to-consumer sales. Over half of digital marketing campaigns, or 53%, use third-party data from an average of 11.9 providers, according to a Programmatic Audience Targeting Survey from Datonics. The survey also found that 69% of respondents were concerned about a disruption in their data strategy from unexpected
privacy, technological, or legal issues. Audience size was the most important factor to marketers when selecting a data service provider, followed by customized offerings and customer service. Despite the looming deprecation of third-party cookies, loss of signal identifiers, and increasing privacy regulations, third-party data continues to play a major role in forming media strategies, the survey found. Incrementality analysis can help marketers to understand the impact of their advertising campaigns on conversions. By comparing a test group (exposed to a new variable, such as a new campaign, publisher, or creative) with a holdout group, incrementality analysis can measure the incremental lift, which is the additional number of conversions generated by the new variable. The article provides an example of how an NBA
team can measure the impact of a shooting coach on the players' free throws and applies this concept to a brand running search, social media, and CTV advertising campaigns. Incrementality analysis allows the brand to determine the incremental lift and incrementality percentage of CTV advertising on conversions. Victoria Alonso, who has been a
high-profile executive at Marvel Studios since its earliest days, has left the company for reasons that are not yet clear. Alonso joined the studio in 2006 and played a key role in launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe, becoming executive producer on The Avengers in 2012. She has served as executive producer on subsequent releases and worked on Disney+ TV series. In 2021, she was promoted to president, physical and postproduction, visual effects and animation production. Alonso has
been an important ambassador for the studio’s representation efforts and was named one of People en Español magazine’s Most Influential Hispanic Women in 2019 and 2020. There are three major benefits of creating a podcast for a business. Firstly, a podcast can help generate leads and promote a business through call-to-action
announcements during interviews. It also helps establish a rapport with the audience, increasing word-of-mouth promotion. Secondly, the content from the podcast can be repurposed for blogs, newsletters, and other formats, reaching a wider audience. Finally, promoting the podcast and its content can drive traffic to the business's website, offering potential for new offers and opportunities. Epsilon, a Publicis Groupe-owned agency, recently launched a self-service digital Customer Data Platform (CDP) for enterprise clients to store, manage, and unify first-party data. The company already offered services related to identity, data onboarding, activation, and proprietary data management. Epsilon sees its CDP as an opportunity to fill the unmet need in the marketplace, and the company is confident its data expertise and focus on
driving marketing outcomes will set it apart. The company's CDP does not charge clients additional fees to do data onboarding and unification, provides demographic or psychographic attributes from its proprietary database, and provides a holistic view of the customer. Epsilon's typical customers are enterprise marketers such as retailers, CPG, and hospitality brands who have a portfolio of brands. The company's CDP helps to answer questions such as how to do marketing, when to be messaging
people, and when someone is on the path for a repeat purchase. Epsilon draws its data from clients' data sources where they are collecting first-party data, and it connects to all the digital and offline touchpoints that the client has. Epsilon's competitive advantage is its robust identity layer, data onboarder, and data enrichment. Nielsen is
introducing big data to its TV ad measurement tool to improve granular targeting in TV campaigns. The ratings giant intends to use its Nielsen ONE Ads dashboard at this year's upfronts. It plans to build C3 and C7 metrics that include audience panels with automatic content recognition (ACR) and set-top box data. Using ACR will enable Nielsen to access one-to-one ad exposure data to improve measurement, which is currently muddy without solid standards. Although the underlying plumbing of
C3 and C7 is the same, clients will have to adjust their forecasting models to account for new and different data. Nielsen also aims to regain its Media Rating Council (MRC) seal of approval, which it lost in 2021. It is also on track to have Nielsen ONE ready to be used as a currency by 2024. Retailers are looking for new ways to provide the
best experience for shoppers in-store and online while keeping their customers engaged and building loyalty during these fluctuating economic times. To meet these demands, brands are creating or expanding the "phygital" experience, which is a mash-up of a brand’s digital and physical storefronts so they coexist. Large, well-known retailers like Nike and Starbucks are integrating technology throughout their store locations and providing personalized services to their customers. Other
ways brands can delight consumers with phygital experiences include integrating app capabilities into the store experience, considering loyalty's role in product usage, and integrating Web3 and loyalty strategies. By meshing digital and physical shopping, brands can differentiate their loyalty offerings and provide member-exclusive experiences while providing personalized, meaningful, and memorable interactions. California lawmakers are considering a bill, called the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require big-tech companies to pay local news publishers a "journalism usage fee" when they use their content and sell advertising next to it. News publishers would be required to invest 70% of the profits from these fees in journalism jobs. The bill was introduced by State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and
authored by the California News Publishers Association and the News/Media Alliance. It aims to provide a "lifeline for news outlets" and ensure that big tech platforms start paying for the journalism they aggregate from local media. Similar legislation is being sought at the federal level. However, a federal bill (S. 673 and H.R. 1735) was dropped from the annual national defense spending bill after Meta threatened to remove news from its U.S. platforms if it passed. According to MoffettNathanson Research, spending on streaming content is expected to climb only 1% this year to $136.4 billion, slowing down after a number of years of double-digit growth. The research firm predicts that spending will remain flat or even decline in the coming years as more companies shift their focus to direct-to-consumer profitability and
rebuilding free cash flow. MoffettNathanson projects that NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery will see declines in spending this year, while Walt Disney will lead big media companies with an estimated spend of $26.4 billion. However, the line between content spend on direct-to-consumer and other segments can quickly become blurry when content appears on multiple platforms. |
You're looking for an edge in your online marketing. Interest: ADOTAT.com is the answer. Our library of resources has been compiled by some
of the world's top internet marketing experts, and it's constantly updated with new information, case studies, and strategies. We want to help you succeed online - that's why we offer this information for free. It's our way of giving back to the community and helping people achieve their business goals.
Sign up now and gain access to our entire library of resources!
Want to advertise? Contact pesach@lattin.us |
|
|
Meet Mary Gilbert, a trailblazer in the B2B marketing
industry with almost 30 years of experience under her belt. As the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Folloze, a buyer experience platform that helps marketers build personal relationships at scale, Mary has become an expert in leading digital transformation and navigating the ever-changing market landscape. Throughout her career, Mary has worked with big-name global brands like Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel, as well as start-ups and scale-ups in diverse industries such as cybersecurity, healthcare,
and future of work technologies. READ ENTIRE STORY
THE PRICE OF A ‘GOOD DEAL’: AD FRAUD IN THE DIGITAL AGE. But here’s the thing – people don’t care about ad fraud because they want to get “good deals.” Just like how people want to buy cheap counterfeit handbags, advertisers want to buy low-cost ads. They don’t care if the ads are fake or if they’re not shown to actual humans – as long as they get to show off their large quantities of impressions and clicks to their bosses. READ THE FULL ARTICLE
COLLABORATION IS KEY: UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL OF FIRST- AND SECOND-PARTY DATA
STRATEGIES The age of relying on third-party data for media buying may be coming to a close, but don't count out the power of collaboration just yet. Data clean rooms (DCRs) have emerged as a popular avenue for brands to uncover valuable insights, but they're not the end-all-be-all solution to marketing strategies in the face of a looming recession. While a DCR can help match audiences and allow brands to... READ MORE
FROM COUCH POTATOES TO CONVERSIONS: THE POWER OF CTV ADVERTISING Connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top TV (OTT) advertising have taken the marketing world by storm, providing brands with a powerful new tool to reach their target audiences. With many advantages over traditional TV advertising, CTV and OTT have become a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. In this guide, we will cover everything you need to know about setting up and measuring CTV ad campaigns, from how it works to the key considerations for advertisers.
READ MORE NOW |
|