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Are You Advertising To Robots? Yes! You Are!

by Brent Stangel
20 replies
Hey All,

Not getting the ROI you were hoping for from your media buys?

It's no secret to some of us that unscrupulous people sell fake "traffic" or "visitors"

Unfortunately a lot of newbies and even intermediate IMers seem oblivious to the facts.

I found this on Bloomberg Business and thought it would be good for new members to see.



Bloomberg Businessweek asked two traffic-fraud-detection firms to assess recent traffic to MyTopFace; they agreed on the condition that their names not be used. One found that 94 percent of 30,000 visitors were bots; the other put the bot traffic at 74 percent. Boris didn't dispute the findings or appear at all concerned. "If I can buy some traffic and it gets accepted, why not?" he says. And if advertisers don't like it, he adds, "they should go buy somewhere else. They want to pay only a little and get a lot of traffic and results. If they want all human traffic, they should go direct to the publisher and pay more."

The Fake Traffic Schemes That Are Rotting the Internet - Bloomberg Business
I can't speak to the validity of these particular results but I have tested a lot of traffic sources that were more bot then not.

Investigate before you buy.

Buy small tests at first.

Choose a small amount of quality human traffic over bots that just make your stat counter spin.

Be Careful out there!

Brent
#advertising #fake traffic #robots
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Great share, thanks!

    This article should make people more wary about mobile traffic in particular.

    I'm not saying ditch mobile altogether but you need to increase your focus on CONVERSION.

    I'd like to add one thing: the bottom line is CONVERSION

    Too many marketers get caught up on CLICK RATES and landing page volume.

    Those metrics don't put food on the table.... RESULTS DO.

    Focus on CONVERSIONS.

    Squeeze as much value out of every red cent you invest in paid traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author TrickyDick
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      Great share, thanks!

      This article should make people more wary about mobile traffic in particular.

      I'm not saying ditch mobile altogether but you need to increase your focus on CONVERSION.

      I'd like to add one thing: the bottom line is CONVERSION

      Too many marketers get caught up on CLICK RATES and landing page volume.

      Those metrics don't put food on the table.... RESULTS DO.

      Focus on CONVERSIONS.

      Squeeze as much value out of every red cent you invest in paid traffic.
      Amen, my brother!

      All that matters is how much you paid for the traffic... and how much you made....

      "Clicks" and e-mail opt-ins don't pay the bills the last time I checked....
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      • Profile picture of the author nicolasmd2112
        Originally Posted by TrickyDick View Post

        Amen, my brother!

        All that matters is how much you paid for the traffic... and how much you made....

        "Clicks" and e-mail opt-ins don't pay the bills the last time I checked....
        So very very very true!

        I don't think i have EVER bought traffic online from a 3-party site and have seen less than 65% bot traffic. This is why I use the mainstream traffic sources that everyone else does. My rule on traffic buying is that if you've never heard of them, they're probably not worth the money, or even the test.

        Just how I feel.
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  • Profile picture of the author @tjr
    Small bit of confusion to me. Is that meant to be a sliding scale, as in the further to the right you are the less likely you're getting human visitors?

    Or is it a more clear cut everything white is human, everything black is a bot?
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    • Profile picture of the author obaynes
      So I guess we need to figure out how to convert the C-3PO demographic then.
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      • Profile picture of the author DRP
        Originally Posted by obaynes View Post

        So I guess we need to figure out how to convert the C-3PO demographic then.
        There's only 1 thing that the C3-P0 demographic wants: Astro Droids like R2-D2.
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        I'd rather tell you an ugly truth than a pretty lie.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    Small bit of confusion to me. Is that meant to be a sliding scale, as in the further to the right you are the less likely you're getting human visitors?

    Or is it a more clear cut everything white is human, everything black is a bot?
    From my own experience I would say it's a sliding scale. I've tested some sources that were a mix.

    Some sellers have paid "signer-uppers." You'll get three or four sign-ups all from the same IP using slightly different Gmail addys, etc.

    Unless the source is know trustworthy (Google, FB, etc,) it's a crap shoot.
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    Get Off The Warrior Forum Now & Don't Come Back If You Want To Succeed!
    All The Real Marketers Are Gone. There's Nothing Left But Weak, Sniveling Wanna-Bees!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    This is very true in PPC networks. Any PPC network besides Google Adwords or Bing Ads i just do not recommend. And even Adwords and Bing Ads are susceptible to this notion.
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    ==>> Free book reveals make money with affiliate marketing
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  • Profile picture of the author Janice Sperry
    There were some very alarming stats in that well-written article. I would never have guessed that even the advertisers with $100 million + budgets have also been getting scammed. Many years ago I realized that when it comes to paid advertising the old phrase "you get what you pay for" doesn't even apply. It is always necessary to scrutinize your traffic no matter where you buy it from. Except for a few of the most trusted sources mentioned already by others it only seems to be getting worse.
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  • Profile picture of the author egoldzone
    Yes, I try several service claimed "Real Traffic not bots" but still no conversion....
    I think you are right....
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    > Instant Traffic Formula : Top Affiliate Make $568K in 30 days
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    • Profile picture of the author Joe Ray
      Originally Posted by egoldzone View Post

      Yes, I try several service claimed "Real Traffic not bots" but still no conversion....
      I think you are right....
      As opposed to those who claim "Our traffic is Not Real we sale all Fake traffic". Of course, they will all claim that their traffic is real.

      I tend to believe the Bloomberg article is right about the 94%. It's not as easy to filter out bots today. Bots can be developed to a very high level of complexity these days.
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  • Profile picture of the author rayaniair
    happen a lot in solo ads
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    It sucks how old this thread is lol.

    But like, robots have feelings too, man.

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  • Profile picture of the author ydsimple
    When it comes to paid traffic one should use only proven sources like facebook, Google, bing ads, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Burritt
    Banned
    This industry is ripe with fraud. I don't know there's any way around it without paying sky-high prices.

    I've paid for traffic many times from lots of different vendors. Here's the best performing/converting traffic I've personally found:

    -Adwords: for lowcomp keywords. I have not had good ROI on more expensive keywords. But I have, in some cases, done ok with lowcomp.

    -Facebook: I can get pretty decent leads. Tons of courses and free info on techniques. Just do some homework and test. It's a cheap way to find what works. Heck even $2-5. Then scale up.

    -Fiverr: Yes, it's a mixed bag. And lots of crap here. But I still use cheap traffic to test out different offers. I even did this yesterday to a new salespage. I sent 5k clicks and got about 12-14 optins. So that's about 50 cents for an optin. Not bad.
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  • Profile picture of the author SiteNameSales
    Do a thorough review check on the search engines about any 2nd tier PPC network you're thinking about. You'll find a lot of Warrior Forum comments doing this as well.

    When doing this you'll often find a lot of webmasters complaining that they weren't paid by a particular network platform. You might want to consider this a positive in some cases, as it usually means the platform doesn't suffer click fraud fools gladly.

    I'm mentioning this in regard to a some experimenting that I am doing and I'm using Clickmeter to help me gauge the results. Can't say for certain how many bogus clicks I got, but I can honestly say that many were from surfers who seemed to have a legitimate interest in what I am promoting.
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    Borrow my Business!...
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  • Profile picture of the author Mel Bel
    Be especially careful if you purchase at BuySellAds, because they have more than a few sites that send mostly bot traffic. I quit using BSA after being burned one time too many.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    I quit using BSA after being burned one time too many.
    I used to get some good placements, but I also gave up on them.
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    Get Off The Warrior Forum Now & Don't Come Back If You Want To Succeed!
    All The Real Marketers Are Gone. There's Nothing Left But Weak, Sniveling Wanna-Bees!
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I guess the ironic thing IMO..
    I see so many people asking and wanting the CHEAPEST traffic available.. and then they get upset when they get no conversions.. when you try to get the cheapest, you will get bots and low quality traffic.. it's a never ending trap..
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    • Profile picture of the author MariaHo
      Originally Posted by ChrisBa View Post

      I guess the ironic thing IMO..
      I see so many people asking and wanting the CHEAPEST traffic available.. and then they get upset when they get no conversions.. when you try to get the cheapest, you will get bots and low quality traffic.. it's a never ending trap..
      Exactly. You always get what you pay for.
      I send traffic to my blog with buywebtraffic.co.uk and see visitors browsing my website reading my blog. Sometimes spending 20 - 30 minutes on my website. Definitely they are not bots.
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