Invalid traffic or IVT refers to rise in ad clicks and impressions on a website artificially. This kind of traffic is not generated by genuine users with real interest in the content, rather a result of automated software known as bot traffic. They are usually considered as negative associations such as spam comments with some malicious links, unauthorised crawlers, click bots that create automatic clicks on ads among others.
IVT is counted among the major threats for digital marketers. A recent study by Juniper Research reveals that in 2022, the digital advertising spends lost to fraud is expected to reach $68 billion. Apart from ad fraud, invalid traffic can cause other damages to your website such as hampering the reputation of a website and data of publishers and further suspension from Google.
For instance, if your website is witnessing constant increase in traffic, high bounce rate and no sign of additional revenue then this can be a sign of invalid traffic. It is said that more than 40% of the traffic includes bot traffic and that is why the prime concern among organisations remains to look for various ways to handle it. To address this concern, you first need to analyse profiles of your website’s traffic to detect suspicious patterns.
Types of IVT
IVT is primarily categorised into two types- General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT).
GIVT is sent by bots, crawlers and machines and has limited impact on the websites. Sudden increase in website’s traffic can be due to GIVT. It could be easily identified through regular monitoring and filtering using standardised parameter checks, lists of crawlers along with other methods. You can use third party solutions like Google Analytics or others to monitor the GIVT.
SIVT includes human and non-human traffic, not relevant to business goals. SIVT is hard to track and caused by malicious media operators to steal advertising revenue. The most common form of SIVT includes malware, injected ads without consent or payment of the user, hijacked devices among others. To track this kind of traffic, you need human intervention to understand how SIVT works and sophisticated analytics systems such as dynamic honeypots, fingerprinting and network behaviour analysis.
Filtering the invalid traffic
To stop invalid traffic, it needs to get filtered first. This can be done using Google analytics which filters the hits from known bots. After detecting the source of the bots, marketers can provide a list of identified IP addresses to be ignored by Google Analytics. This move helps to stop some bots but not all.
How to prevent websites from invalid traffic?
Robots.text: The first step to prevent websites from invalid traffic is by including robots.txt file which instructs bots for crawling a page and also prevents them from visiting. However, it is important to note that only good bots can be managed through robots.txt, malicious bots cannot be stopped from crawling a website.
Rate limiting: There are several ways to deal with invalid traffic. One of them is a rate limiting solution which helps to detect traffic from a single IP address and prevent them from visiting a website, but malicious traffic still gets overlooked. Furthermore, a network engineer can look through the traffic, list out the suspicious network requests and provide the list of IP addresses to be blocked with the help of Web Application Firewall (WAF). This process again prevents invalid traffic to certain extent but not all.
Bot management solution: Apart from rate limiting, there is an easiest and effective way to stop invalid traffic and that is through bot management. This form of solutions use behavioural analysis to stop malicious traffic from entering a website. One such simple, easy to use and affordable tool is Cloudfare Bot Management. This software leverages intelligence from internet properties and applies machine learning to identify and stop different kinds of bots by analysing their functioning. Cloudfare is a cloud-based service whis is available on subscription. Its Pro plans consist of a Super Bot Fight Mode which helps to stop as many bots as possible during active attack. To configure this mode, you just need to click on the Configure Super Bot Fight Mode link and click the allow tab for Definitely automated and Verified bots feature and further toggle options for Static resource protection and JavaScript Detections to off. In case of Enterprise and Business plans, again you need to click on the Configure Super Bot Fight Mode link and Allow Definitely automated, Likely automated and Verified bots feature. Under this plan also the Static resource protection and JavaScript Detections options need to be put off.
Simple recommendations to prevent your website from IVT
· Identify source of IVT: You need to identify the origin point of IVT using specialised analytical tools to detect and block invalid traffic. If you can track the source, you might be able to stop it.
· Carefully select third-party traffic sources: Use of third-party paid traffic sources can lead to a considerable high amount of IVT. That is why it is crucial to closely review these sources and select only those which provide high-quality traffic.
· Coordinate with your ad exchange partners: In case you detect some invalid traffic on your website, you need to connect with the platform being used to sell ad inventory and seek their help to identify and prevent abnormality in the traffic.
· High quality ad inventory: It is important to maintain high quality ad inventory with high viewability along with other crucial parameters in order to detect IVT and eliminate it further.