Is your website audience is real or from robot traffic? Latest research from the US shows a surge in bots for mobile websites that will have many brands anxious about whether they can trust their mobile analytics.
Suspicious US web traffic was down from a high of 61% in Q4 to 55% in Q1, which Solve Media attributes to lower ad spending after the holiday season.
Meanwhile, levels of suspicious mobile activity remained relatively flat quarter-over-quarter. Compared to Q1 2013, though, level of suspicious web and mobile activity have increased.
Separately, the report notes that 36% of traffic on automotive-specific sites acted suspiciously; the auto sector accounted for 12% share of online ad spend last year.
Suspicious US web traffic continues to make up the majority of total traffic at 55%, down slightly from last quarter due to lower ad spend after the holiday surge.
Solve Media took an in-depth look at the automotive vertical during Q1 2014. This research uncovered that 36.1% of traffic on automotive-specific sites acted suspiciously, with 22.2% of traffic confirmed as bot. As multi-screen touch points become an integral part of the car buying process, automotive advertisers are moving more of their budgets to online and mobile channels. This shift creates significant demand for premium inventory, and has invited fraud. Large automotive advertisers with significant ad budgets must use their influence to demand accountability and the proactive mitigation of bot fraud. For both efficiency and ROI, automotive advertisers should seek out high-performance advertising solutions that reach validated human audiences.
“The bot problem is not going to improve unless the companies with clout use it to demand an engaged human audience. Bigger budgets mean more power and influence, which puts automotive advertisers in the proverbial driver’s seat for demanding accountability in our industry,” said Ari Jacoby, CEO and Co-Founder, Solve Media. “If they refuse to settle for anything less than zero-waste ad spend investments, the industry will have no choice but to meet the demand. With the push for Secure Media from the biggest investors in digital advertising, providers on the sell-side must be prepared with effective solutions like performance-based media that guarantee cognition.”
Solve Media’s publisher platform includes thousands of automotive sites. It has reported on bot data for the past two years based on insights from the 10,000 publishers in its network across display, video and mobile.
http://solvemedia.com/