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Carrier Bots (9)

04-25-2017 06:47 AM #1 orisin1 (Member)
Carrier Bots

Hey guys
I know bots today can do many things to make us think they are human . I know there are many methods you can use to minimize the damage caused to our campaigns, one is to simply target 3g traffic only. however some bots out there can emulate that kind of traffic also. I was wondering if anyone has a clue % wise how many of the bots can emulate 3g traffic?

04-25-2017 07:12 AM #2 blueflag (Member)

Thats an interesting topic.... I never really thought too much about it. I was running now a network wide check over Forensiq, its not 100% accurate for Bots but in general for suspicious traffic. It gave me a result of 25% suspicious 3G clicks. TIER 1 markets like DE and IT have a very low one of around 10% and TIER 3 markets like Sri Lanka of 37% - TIER 3 has always a high risk score so I would orientate myself more on the 10% what seems actually still high for me and can include also error from IP Ranges that are never 100%.

04-25-2017 07:21 AM #3 orisin1 (Member)

Originally Posted by blueflag

Interesting, I feel we live in an era where traffic, unless proven otherwise is fraud

those who can deal with it best are winning

04-25-2017 09:26 AM #4 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Originally Posted by orisin1

Interesting, I feel we live in an era where traffic, unless proven otherwise is fraud

those who can deal with it best are winning

There are some 3G bots too for sure, but way less than in the "wifi" sphere. It's obviously more complicated to make 3G bots.

You need to realize one thing though : traffic is sold in auctions, and the bids are set with bots in mind, at least when working in a field with heavy performance marketers presence. If all bots vanished all of a sudden, the EPCs would go up and media buyers would simply start paying higher CPMs. BOTs are super annoying and they complicate the optimization for sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you would make bigger profits if they disappeared.

04-25-2017 12:34 PM #5 orisin1 (Member)

Originally Posted by matuloo

Yep that's an interesting way to look at this. Bots as an entry barrier to this space

04-25-2017 01:37 PM #6 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Originally Posted by orisin1

Yep that's an interesting way to look at this. Bots as an entry barrier to this space

It really works like that in a way, those who can detect bots, stay away from placements with too high % of them. Those who can't, will get flooded with shitty bot traffic and wonder why it's not converting.

04-26-2017 07:11 PM #7 johner911 (Member)

You dont need a 3g bot..you can have an ordinary browser with an ip spoofer and a broker who doesn't attribute the X forwarded for header properly.

04-26-2017 09:40 PM #8 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

Originally Posted by johner911

You dont need a 3g bot..you can have an ordinary browser with an ip spoofer and a broker who doesn't attribute the X forwarded for header properly.

Right, spoofers work to some extent, if you can get the right IP ranges, but many traffic sources block it already and so do the advertisers. It's worth a try indeed though, thanks for mentioning it.

05-05-2017 06:45 AM #9 jessejames (Member)

Simple bots -- not spy tools -- seem to be easy to block using bot tests in JS. Some affiliate networks will show you the ISP and even a "score" for your clicks, and when running the bot test (basically the bots won't make it to the offer page), you can see traffic and CR get's better in the aff network -- so I guess it works. From my testing, what I can detect, there aren't a lot of bots on carrier -- but on some placements there is a lot, so it's good to cut those quick.

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