​​Bot Fraud – Analytical and Reputational Risk to Publishers

As digital ad spend increases, so does fraud, in the form of bot traffic crawling the web at all hours of the day and night. Every vertical is affected. For unsuspecting publishers, bot traffic messes up web analytics, delivers a distorted view of scale and audience behavior, and creates reputational risk for publishers.

Fraudulent bots don’t identify themselves as bots, so publishers won’t find them easily by using industry blacklists. But they’re not necessarily invisible either. Bots and humans often follow different traffic patterns; and bots don’t mimic certain key human actions. Measuring these behaviors is a way for publishers to communicate to advertisers the real value of a digital property. Bots may be everywhere, but publishers can learn how to detect them by knowing where to look and what to look for in their analytics and when using specialized toolsets.

Dr. Augustine Fou brings a unique and highly valuable perspective to the issues of digital security and fraud. He’s spent over 20 years creating and optimizing marketing campaigns for clients. Dr. Fou has published and spoken extensively about cybersecurity. With an eye on both the problem and the solution, he brings the right perspective at the right time to Publisher Forum.​