Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Native

---

Unable to fetch Native Ads data (15)

---

Hello,

Earlier i was using Bemob tracker for my native ads campaign and the stats in my revcontent dashboard and bemob tracker didn't match at all.



there are certain widgets that have got 0 clicks(in revcontent), but tracker shows 300 clicks.
There is huge cost difference in both tracker and revcontent).
plus, there are certain widgets that don't exist in revcontent but tracker shows i got 100 clicks on them.

After getting fed up, i signed up on RedTrack and paid them $99. But RedTrack has the same exact problem that i faced with bemob.

So, is this a common issue with all the trackers? Or is it happening only with me?

Due to this problem, my optimizer rules are not getting implemented properly. Wrong Widgets ids are getting blacklisted.

So, how do i fix this issue?

It's so frustrating.

This is API based cost tracking in both the cases.

Also jaybot had suggested me redtrack, so, @jaybot, are you facing any similar issue in redtrack?

---

Did you double and triple check your links?

Maybe you mixed up a parameter/token or so.

---

i double checked, didn't mix up any link.

---

The affected widgets with no clicks in Revcontent but clicks in the tracker have very high LP CTR.



Maybe this is bot traffic and Revcontent just doesn´t count it/bill it.

---

Obviously @platinum is the expert on this, but one thing I would note is that the Revcontent<>tracker stats always seemed way off in my experience, and therefore you needed to integrate Revcontent with TheOptimizer as well, and set up all the rules based on Traffic Source clicks instead of Tracker clicks.

The tracker will have a correct number of landing page clicks, but the overall clicks will be off since Revcontent is goofy. So to block widgets based on lp ctr, you want to do 'Block widget after 15 Traffic Source clicks and <10% lp ctr', instead of 'Block widdget after 15 Tracker Clicks and <10% lp ctr'.

My tracker never has accurate stats for any traffic source... so I always do optimizations in TheOptimizer or in the actual traffic source dashboard (e.g. Outbrain, Taboola).

---

Thanks a lot Jack, this is very helpful. gives a different perspective to it.

---

Also @jack_I, can you share if...vctr (clicks/views) of a widget can be this high?



or is it sign of a bot traffic?
Is ideal vctr/ctr below 1%? (for any widget that has more than 10 clicks).

---

Good possible, at least it relates pretty good to what I posted above about the high LP CTR.

---

I honestly don't know... it could just be a quirk of their reporting or it could be bot traffic. I've noticed on Outbrain the worst widgets often have the same phenomenon, so I certainly wouldn't hesitate to block those widgets you're seeing that on (presuming its a small percentage obviously which would reinforce the possibility that its not a reporting quirk).

But yeah, when I ran on Revc I would never auto-block based on vCTR though, only lp ctr and overall cpa, because the vCTR is primarily a function of how many other ads are visible on the site, so its hard to tell anything from it generally. (i.e. a site with one 3 ad widget will have vastly higher vCTR's than a site with three 12 ad widgets and a bunch of other ads).

But with the site above, yes, I would probably block it

---

What you are experiencing here is most probably a sing of bot traffic that is not being charged by RevContent. For example, based of the impressions they have served and tracker clicks generated the following widgets have abnormally high ctr:

Widget: 18609 - CTR: 42.35%
Widget: 112299 - CTR: 27.79%

The above calculated "ctr" is based of the tracker clicks and RevContent impressions.

It's worth noting that the issue that you are experiencing has nothing to do with the tracker. Practically the tracker is doing its job, which is to track campaign link visits based of the information that is being sent by the traffic source.

On the other hand, you might want to check out what the traffic source is reporting in terms of spend. This because obvious bot clicks are usually filtered by native ad networks and that will result in discrepancies between the tracker and traffic source. However you don't pay for those clicks. In case you do, I'd suggest pinging your rep or the traffic source (including a detailed explanation on why you think you were charged for bot clicks).

For example depending on the GEO, my tracker may report 10% - 20% or even 100% more clicks than those reported by Taboola, however I don't care because I'm not paying for those clicks.

Such vCTR is unreal!

For affiliate style or traditional offers the CTR is below the 1% range and vCTR below 2% (with rare exceptions) which is far from what you are getting. Even for content arbitragers that usually shoot for 4% - 6% - 7% vCTR the above is not real. Btw the site where the clicks are coming from seems to be doing just that.

For RevContent optimization rules you can confidently use TS Clicks instead of TR Clicks. This because RevContent updates statistics frequently both in their UI and API. Meanwhile if you're running Taboola or Outbrain, I would rely more on TR Clicks than TS Clicks because they have a known delay of 2-4 hours.

---

Thanks everyone for helping!

Everything is manageable.
The problem occurs only when,
number of clicks in revcontent is less and tracker shows more clicks/lp ctr(for same widget id).

Example: for widget id: 112299



tracker shows 300+ clicks and 70% LP CTR.

But in reality this widget id got only 5 clicks (according to Revcontent)



so, for something like widget id: 112299, low LP ctr rule (of optimizer) will not get applied accurately due to inflated LP ctr in tracker.
And there is nothing i can do to prevent it.

Similarly, there are many other widgets like 112299.
Due to this issue the whole data gets ruined.

---

The important thing is that you are not getting charged for those abnormally high clicks!

A couple workarounds that might help in your situation would be the following:

1. Calculate the LP CTR based on TS Clicks and LP Clicks using a "Custom metric" in TheOptimizer



This custom metric can be directly compared to the LP CTR reported by the tracker and used as a rule condition to filter down when the rule rules.



It's just a matter of accurately defining the conditions and thresholds.

2. Replace <a> tags with <div> and mask href with an onclick javascript function. In other words hide the click url behind a javascript.

Doing so you can cut out dumb bots from being able to click on your links and inflate your LP CTR.

Note: This method can result in slightly lower overall LP CTR, while still not providing protection from javascript capable bots.

3. If Bemob is able to report and filter out proxy traffic (or better datacenter traffic) where most of the fake clicks might come from, then you can re-proxy traffic visitors to another offer or campaign.

This way clicks coming from known proxy or data center ip address won't see your landing page and click on it.

Note: For this one to properly work you will need to use a redirect tracking method (no redirect should be more complex to setup). Also, if visitors are using a VPN to surf on the net, such visitors might be filtered too.

---

Yeah but if Revcontent only charged you for 5 clicks it doesn't really matter anyway though...

I wouldn't worry about it man... just set up rules to based on TS clicks<>LP CTR, and then also for TS spend<>TR Revenue. Between those two things you should be set

---

This really looks like BOT traffic as the other guys suggested too. Since you're not getting charged for those, revcontent detected the bots already so it's pretty much just an annoyance and not real damage. But I know how annoying this can get, so whenever I see such placements sending me traffic that messes up the tracker, I simple block/stop those. These fake clicks mess up the offer and LP rotation, since the tracker treats these as real visits, so thats another reason to block these.

---

Everyone pretty much covered it already. I find it’s either bots (especially on revcontent) and compliance check bots (especially on Taboola).

The compliance check bots will run several times a day, every day, and fuck up your stats if trying to gauge costs by CPC. RedTrack checks actual cost by API so that helps on cost tracking.

As for cutting placement rules in theoptimizer, sticking with TS clicks at 30 and TR LP CTR or 5% or less will still be pretty accurate to filter out the bots/checks on shut widgets that you don’t want. But. If you’re worried about blocking an actual good site, you can also throw in the if CR = to 0 then block, just in case the placement actual converts.

If you’re still worried about blocking too early, just drop down that LP CTR to 1% or less.

---

Home > Paid Traffic Sources > Native