Bot Traffic on Sitescout Cost me $1300 BEWARE (19)
Long story, short version.
I ran a zip submit direct linked using advertiser creatives on Sitescout.
One placement was performing very well so I upped my bid and tried to get as much traffic as I could.
I sent about $1000 worth of leads to the offer and then had my account at the network banned. When I asked why they said the lead quality was terrible with none of the zip leads going on the fill out more info.
The network owner said he would look into it further when I complained. He just got back to me now and said the leads were bot traffic. All the leads used the same 4 ZIP codes, the browser languages were chinese, slovak and russian and the clicks all came from Amazon web services and slovensko a.s. etc etc. Definitely bot traffic.
The offer I was running was in USA.
Anyway the network is not paying me out so I have lost all the money I spent on Sitescout traffic for this offer.
So the moral of the story is, if you are running zip or email subs, don't wait for the cap to have your traffic quality assessed. Just run a small amount of leads (you are comfortable not getting paid out on) and then pause your campaigns and ask to have your lead quality checked.
I never did any volume with this network before, and I expect I would have been paid out if I had run the traffic with the main network I use which I have a good relationship with. So that's another thing to take away from this. Its a bit annoying as I only ran this offer because the AM from the network has been trying for over a year to get me to run their offers so I thought I'd try.
Anyway this isn't a thread bashing Sitescout as they are just a RTB platform for other traffic networks. I am sure there are plenty of people banking on their and they have a shit load of legit placements on there.
Its just a warning to be extremely careful on there as even the placements which are converting for you may not be real leads and you may not even get paid out.
I would still ask the network for a report to back up these claims
^^
Yes I would kindly ask for a sample of the bad leads
Most off the shelf bots are designed to fake impressions and clicks, and not fill out detailed web forms.
If what the networks says is true (and you should verify this), it seems more like fraudulent traffic than bot traffic, unless it is a custom scripted bot.
It wasn't a detailed web form, just a zip submit and all my hundreds of leads were just 4 zip codes.
Anyway I cannot believe you sent traffic and it filled out zip codes - unless the traffic/bots were programmed to do that. Sounds very strange to me.
This is not cool at all... I know that SiteScout as all the other similar traffic sources have bot traffic, but I never would have thought that there would be bots filling out the offers!
I mean, what's the point of it? Why would anyone spend their time creating a sophisticated program to go and fill out zip forms?
Originally Posted by ralphy
Originally Posted by erikgyepes
It could be an evil strategy of publishers' to get you to bid more for certain placements so they make more money.
Nevertheless, this is a good post. It reminds us how important it is to do a lead quality check before scaling things up.
Get a report from the network.
Use that report to also demand a refund from SiteScout.
Lastly, some advice: check your tracking system data for this campaign. If most of the clicks/leads are from bots on Amazon servers and from outside the US, it should show and you would normally be able to see this long before sending $1000 (I would never keep sending clicks if I saw "Amazon Web Services" as the ISP for most of the conversions).
Just FYI - I have heard of bots filling out simple form submits before. Not often, but I've heard of it happening.
Much sympathy - that sucks. As Zeno says, definitely follow up hard with the network and SiteScout.
That happens very often mate, just get as much evidence as possible and ask for a refund.
I have gotten close to 6 figure refunds for fraudulent traffic before, so definitely worth seeking to claim this back if you have evidence.
Originally Posted by caurmen
And since the release of task-automation apps like Zennoposter (that you can use for many legit thinks) it has become quite easy to make some.
At first those bot's were made to generate revenue for the DEVs/the customers.
They had a DB in the background to grab data and autofill all fields that the offer required.
Send in 1k clicks and let the script fill-in 5-10% of these clicks for conversion.
Even worse there were bot's that locked the users PC and forced the user to "validate his phone-number" else his computer stays locked. (Like BKA Trojan)
This was used for PIN submits in 2012/2013 already.
It seems they've adapted the game to mobile/rtb means there are pulishers trying to increase the value of their placements so that you start buying more traffic maybe at higher rates because it converts for you.
On the other side it would be quite easy for the network/offer-owner to make use of some hidden-fields on the offer-site to trick bots.
A bot will normally fill in all fields to avoid possible required-field validation errors but a user would not, since it's hidden.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to give sitescout your network rep's contact information if they need any more info. Sitescout tends to know most of the networks and have good communication with them. If the network is willing to vouch for you with the bot information they are quicker to refund.
Sitescout have replied to my support ticket wanting to call me to discuss and are offering a possible refund of the bot traffic.
This would be the perfect solution as the fault lies with them.
Thanks for the suggestion to refund, I never would here asked otherwise.
I'll update with what happens.
Is outing this placement against affiliate code?
Originally Posted by coalission
The placement was: Site Bundle 24-110286058
It gets 10m impressions per day from Cox Digital and they have not removed it yet.
I am sending them more info to support my refund and will report back what they say. Hopefully they will block this placement.
Just to let you know that site scout refunded me for all the bot traffic. That's a refund to my bank account and not just credit on their network.
So it ended well.
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