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I was shocked by Google's 100% bot traffic! (10)

11-28-2015 06:53 PM #1 juntao65 (Member)
I was shocked by Google's 100% bot traffic!

I am the creator of ClickFraud.co (A Bot Traffic Detection Tool) and one of my customer ran a mobile app campaign on Google with surprisingly 100% bot clicks. I double checked his tracker setup to make sure things are correct and they were.

I was shocked myself to see so much bots from Google. Have anyone else running mobile notice all the bot traffic from Google? How are you guys mitigating it?

Edit: Sorry I have to remove the screenshot by request of the original customer. I made a mistake of posting it without his permission and I apologize publicly for that. Also to correct my original statement the traffic wasn't 100% bots because he only sent the suspected bot traffic to clickfraud. The actual percentage is about 40%.

PS. Shameless plug: Checkout this thread on STM for exclusive ClickFraud coupon.

11-28-2015 07:16 PM #2 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

I bought about $100k worth of traffic last year from google and didnt really face any serious bot problems.Im having a hard time to believe google would send him 100% bot traffic, especially since the traffic was coming from various mobile apps. Did he contact google and ask them about this? They do automatic checks and refund $ spent on bot traffic regularly, so I would guess they should be willing to refund him for this traffic too.

11-28-2015 07:56 PM #3 juntao65 (Member)

Yeah it was hard for me to believe too. Although maybe it was the group of apps that he targeted were low quality. Majority of clicks came from two weather apps from same company. The app company might be shady and deployed bots to click on their own ads.

11-29-2015 08:04 AM #4 bobliu (Member)

@ juntao65 what % of your clients are getting refunds from traffic sources based on your bot predictions? what proof is shown to them? what methods do you use? what botnet detection measures do you have?

11-29-2015 03:53 PM #5 juntao65 (Member)

Not sure about refund %, I think that would be up to your relationship with the traffic source. As far as method, all I can say is we analyze both server and client side behaviors to determine legitimacy.

02-05-2016 06:59 PM #6 herefornow (Member)

Hello man,

I think I got a bot problem with some of my native campaign, but I m checking my tracker and I am still not sure of what I could send to them to prove it , could you help ?

02-05-2016 08:04 PM #7 cmdeal (Veteran Member)

The idea that Google has 100% bot traffic or anything even close to this is just absurd ...

02-05-2016 08:17 PM #8 theboss (Member)

Can I have the traffic you label as bot? I'll settle this quickly

02-05-2016 08:37 PM #9 theboss (Member)

I don't think your pricing model works (at least for pops on CPM)

For your entry level of 300k clicks for $300, and if up to 31% of impressions are bots....

I spend $600 at $2 CPM = 300k impressions. X 0.69 assuming 31% bots leaves me 207k. +300 for your product makes that $900 for 207k clean impressions.

If I keep my $300 and just buy $900 at $2 CPM without your product = 450k impressions X 0.69 for bots = 310,500 impressions. It gets even more dramatic if your % of bots is better than 31.

I do realize that clean traffic makes advertisers happier, I just think you may need to rethink your pricing model. Unless I'm missing something?

02-17-2016 01:57 AM #10 juntao65 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by theboss View Post
I don't think your pricing model works (at least for pops on CPM)

For your entry level of 300k clicks for $300, and if up to 31% of impressions are bots....

I spend $600 at $2 CPM = 300k impressions. X 0.69 assuming 31% bots leaves me 207k. +300 for your product makes that $900 for 207k clean impressions.

If I keep my $300 and just buy $900 at $2 CPM without your product = 450k impressions X 0.69 for bots = 310,500 impressions. It gets even more dramatic if your % of bots is better than 31.

I do realize that clean traffic makes advertisers happier, I just think you may need to rethink your pricing model. Unless I'm missing something?


Your math only checks out if you have 100% CTR since ClickFraud charges per clicks, while you are paying per impression. Realistically with 2% CTR 300K impressions only have 6K click through.

31% is average of all internet traffic. Traffic sources with $2 CPM probably have way more than 31%. It all depend on the targeting. For example the reason one of my customer's Google traffic was 100% bot is because his targeting was these shady antivirus apps. The developers who made the shady anti virus apps are sending a lot of fraud clicks through their own apps, while higher quality apps with real users have a lot more real clicks.

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