This document discusses different types of internet bots and their impact on online video advertising. It identifies three main types of bots: crawler/spiders which index content, covert crawlers which mimic human behavior to commit ad fraud, and zombie computers which are infected devices controlled remotely for malicious purposes like fraud. The document reports that bots now generate more internet traffic than humans and are negatively impacting the video advertising industry through fraudulent impressions.
Better Metrics, Less Hacks: Online Travel and The Future of Web SecurityDistil Networks
30% of travel industry website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, spammers, and fraudsters. Fact is, travel suppliers, OTAs, and metasearch sites are all being scraped by bots which hurts their marketing metrics, SEO, website performance, and customer loyalty.
View this presentation to understand:
- The prevalence and impact of bots on your website
- How to improve your online KPIs
- How to identify and block fraudsters and scrapers
- When a web scraper is actually good
The future of online travel and website security
Field Guide To Preventing Competitor Price Scraping, Unwanted Transactions, B...Distil Networks
Like most ecommerce sites, StubHub’s competitors try to scrape their prices, and monitor inventory and customer behavior. Meanwhile, other nefarious actors attempt brute force attacks and transaction fraud. Learn advanced website security and web infrastructure management strategies from StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and Distil Networks, the global leader in bot detection and mitigation.
Learn how to:
- Protect prices and product listings from being scraped or monitored by competitors
- Defend your site against brute force login attacks and carding
- Ensure brand secrets and pricing schedules are kept safe
- Increase revenues by ensuring traffic is from legitimate sources
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
WELCOME first selection of Brazil (August 4, 2013) POSITION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The world will come to you. LINK TO REGISTER http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
получить легко маркетинговый план обновляется renatogeteasy
ДОБРО ПОЖАЛОВАТЬ первой сборной Бразилии (4 августа 2013 г.)
ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ КАК МОЖНО СКОРЕЕ. Мир придет к вам.
Ссылка для регистрации
http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa
SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
BIENVENIDOS primera Selección du Brésil (4 Août, 2013) Positionnement AVANT POSIBLE. El mundo Vendra les vosotros. LINK POUR VOUS INSCRIRE http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
Better Metrics, Less Hacks: Online Travel and The Future of Web SecurityDistil Networks
30% of travel industry website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, spammers, and fraudsters. Fact is, travel suppliers, OTAs, and metasearch sites are all being scraped by bots which hurts their marketing metrics, SEO, website performance, and customer loyalty.
View this presentation to understand:
- The prevalence and impact of bots on your website
- How to improve your online KPIs
- How to identify and block fraudsters and scrapers
- When a web scraper is actually good
The future of online travel and website security
Field Guide To Preventing Competitor Price Scraping, Unwanted Transactions, B...Distil Networks
Like most ecommerce sites, StubHub’s competitors try to scrape their prices, and monitor inventory and customer behavior. Meanwhile, other nefarious actors attempt brute force attacks and transaction fraud. Learn advanced website security and web infrastructure management strategies from StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and Distil Networks, the global leader in bot detection and mitigation.
Learn how to:
- Protect prices and product listings from being scraped or monitored by competitors
- Defend your site against brute force login attacks and carding
- Ensure brand secrets and pricing schedules are kept safe
- Increase revenues by ensuring traffic is from legitimate sources
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
WELCOME first selection of Brazil (August 4, 2013) POSITION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The world will come to you. LINK TO REGISTER http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
получить легко маркетинговый план обновляется renatogeteasy
ДОБРО ПОЖАЛОВАТЬ первой сборной Бразилии (4 августа 2013 г.)
ПОЛОЖЕНИЕ КАК МОЖНО СКОРЕЕ. Мир придет к вам.
Ссылка для регистрации
http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa
SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
BIENVENIDOS primera Selección du Brésil (4 Août, 2013) Positionnement AVANT POSIBLE. El mundo Vendra les vosotros. LINK POUR VOUS INSCRIRE http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa SKYPE: MOISES.DORR
Catalogo de Blusas, Jeans & Ropa Casual / Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
A brief introduction on Personal Branding for software professionals. Some brief strategies and ideas for getting known on social media. A presentation I gave to the Toronto Java User Group
Get easy plano de marketing atualizado renatogeteasy
BEM VINDO 1ª EQUIPE DO BRASIL (4 DE AGOSTO DE 2013)
POSICIONE O QUANTO ANTES. O MUNDO VAI VIR ABAIXO DE VOCÊ.
LINK PARA CADASTRO
http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa
SKYPE:MOISES.DORR
Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
From Archive to Gateway: The Evolution of the Research LibraryMichael Levine-Clark
Levine-Clark, Michael, “From Archive to Gateway: The Evolution of the Research Library,” Invited. University of Utah, Friends of the Marriott Library Spring Banquet, Salt Lake City, April 9, 2013.
Nwill 2013 Whither ILL? Wither ILL: The Changing Nature of Resource Sharing i...Michael Levine-Clark
Levine-Clark, Michael and Lenny Allen, “Whither ILL? Wither ILL: The Changing Nature of Resource Sharing in an Age of Digital Content,” Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference, Portland, OR, September 13, 2013.
How To Protect Your Website From Bot Attacks is a one-hour continuing education course. After successfully completing the course and final exam, you will be awarded a certificate of completion that you can use towards fulfilling your continuing education requirements.
Did you know 30% of Ecommerce website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, and fraudsters?
Fact is, online retailers are particularly susceptible to the effects of advanced bot threats, including competitive tactics like price scraping, product matching, variation tracking and availability targeting. Even worse, security breaches such as transaction fraud and account takeovers endanger the overall security of your website, customer base, and brand.
When aggressive scrapers caused repeated site slowdowns, Brian Gress, Director of IT Systems & Governance at Hayneedle, said enough was enough.
Key takeaways include how to:
- Stop competitors from scraping your prices and monitoring your inventory
- Reduce chargeback fees due to transaction fraud, carding and account hijacking
- Optimize your conversion funnel and enjoy clean analytics and KPIs
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
Field Guide for Validating Premium Ad InventoryDistil Networks
Many of the current technologies used to detect fraud are great at detecting the amount of fraud (e.g., post-bid analysis). However, we need more technologies and techniques that focus on how to stop fraud before it happens. Having continuous, real-time data is important for this; but equally important are the policies and disclosures of the publishers and ad networks themselves.
Key Takeaways:
- The State of Digital Ad Fraud -- Terminology, landscape and trends
- The advertiser and publisher perspective -- Top issues and concerns
- Tools of the trade and best practices -- The different technologies and approaches to detecting and mitigating digital ad fraud
- Anatomy of a successful premium ad inventory program -- Whitepages’ guiding principles, policies and procedures
Catalogo de Blusas, Jeans & Ropa Casual / Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
A brief introduction on Personal Branding for software professionals. Some brief strategies and ideas for getting known on social media. A presentation I gave to the Toronto Java User Group
Get easy plano de marketing atualizado renatogeteasy
BEM VINDO 1ª EQUIPE DO BRASIL (4 DE AGOSTO DE 2013)
POSICIONE O QUANTO ANTES. O MUNDO VAI VIR ABAIXO DE VOCÊ.
LINK PARA CADASTRO
http://cadastro.officegeteasy.com/liderfloripa
SKYPE:MOISES.DORR
Contacto: info@linnova.net / (57) 300 545 3571 – (57) 301 580 8013 / Bogotá – Colombia / www.linnova.net
Información de Precios y Formas de Pago solicítelas directamente a info@linnova.net
Venta de Ropa, Calzado y Accesorios para Uso Personal o para Negocio / Aproveche ahora e inicie su propio negocio
From Archive to Gateway: The Evolution of the Research LibraryMichael Levine-Clark
Levine-Clark, Michael, “From Archive to Gateway: The Evolution of the Research Library,” Invited. University of Utah, Friends of the Marriott Library Spring Banquet, Salt Lake City, April 9, 2013.
Nwill 2013 Whither ILL? Wither ILL: The Changing Nature of Resource Sharing i...Michael Levine-Clark
Levine-Clark, Michael and Lenny Allen, “Whither ILL? Wither ILL: The Changing Nature of Resource Sharing in an Age of Digital Content,” Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference, Portland, OR, September 13, 2013.
How To Protect Your Website From Bot Attacks is a one-hour continuing education course. After successfully completing the course and final exam, you will be awarded a certificate of completion that you can use towards fulfilling your continuing education requirements.
Did you know 30% of Ecommerce website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, and fraudsters?
Fact is, online retailers are particularly susceptible to the effects of advanced bot threats, including competitive tactics like price scraping, product matching, variation tracking and availability targeting. Even worse, security breaches such as transaction fraud and account takeovers endanger the overall security of your website, customer base, and brand.
When aggressive scrapers caused repeated site slowdowns, Brian Gress, Director of IT Systems & Governance at Hayneedle, said enough was enough.
Key takeaways include how to:
- Stop competitors from scraping your prices and monitoring your inventory
- Reduce chargeback fees due to transaction fraud, carding and account hijacking
- Optimize your conversion funnel and enjoy clean analytics and KPIs
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
Field Guide for Validating Premium Ad InventoryDistil Networks
Many of the current technologies used to detect fraud are great at detecting the amount of fraud (e.g., post-bid analysis). However, we need more technologies and techniques that focus on how to stop fraud before it happens. Having continuous, real-time data is important for this; but equally important are the policies and disclosures of the publishers and ad networks themselves.
Key Takeaways:
- The State of Digital Ad Fraud -- Terminology, landscape and trends
- The advertiser and publisher perspective -- Top issues and concerns
- Tools of the trade and best practices -- The different technologies and approaches to detecting and mitigating digital ad fraud
- Anatomy of a successful premium ad inventory program -- Whitepages’ guiding principles, policies and procedures
“Many clients have asked me to assess and recommend fraud detection and mitigation companies. This deck is intended to provide clients an objective and independent point of view and commentary on the known players in the digital ad fraud space.”
Ana White OPS - the bot baseline - fraud in digital advertising - 2015Romain Fonnier
Advertisers will lose $6.3 billion globally to bots in 2015
The ANA partnered with White Ops, a security company with experience eradicating ad fraud on an initiative to determine the level of bot fraud occurring across the digital advertising industry. The ANA recruited 36 member companies to participate. The participants worked with a wide variety of agency partners, including media agencies, full-service agencies, and in-house agencies. White Ops tagged participants' creative in August and September 2014 (181 U.S. campaigns) to determine fraud activity. The study measured 5.5 billion impressions in 3 million domains over 60 days.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) publishes a study about bot traffic in Digital Advertising, in collaboration with White Ops.
At current bot rates, advertisers will lose approximately $6.3 billion globally to bots in 2015 (applying the bot levels observed across the study to the estimated $40 billion spent globally on display ads and the estimated
$8.3 billion spent globally on video ads).
The Bot Baseline - Fraud in Digital Advertisingyann le gigan
>>The Bot Baseline: Fraud in Digital Advertising
[ana.net 09.12.14]
Advertisers will lose $6.3 billion globally to bots in 2015.
http://www.ana.net/content/show/id/botfraud
The Retail Strategy and Planning Series is designed to provide retail executives with the tactical tips, insights, metrics and trend data needed to guide 2017 strategies. Tune into Are Bot Operators Eating Your Lunch? and learn how to protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings from bad bots: rtou.ch/2c5cPmx.
Very useful description and guidelines from the IAB about traffic fraud and digital ad fraud.
SOURCE: http://www.iab.net/member_center/traffic_of_good_intent_task_force
What is online ad fraud and what does um do about itAlan King
Presentation on Brand Safety measures undertaken by UM London.
It's our view that agencies need to lead the charge against ad fraud. We use brand safety software as standard to protect clients' interests.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Financial curveballs sent many American families reeling in 2023. Household budgets were squeezed by rising interest rates, surging prices on everyday goods, and a stagnating housing market. Consumers were feeling strapped. That sentiment, however, appears to be waning. The question is, to what extent?
To take the pulse of consumers’ feelings about their financial well-being ahead of a highly anticipated election, ThinkNow conducted a nationally representative quantitative survey. The survey highlights consumers’ hopes and anxieties as we move into 2024. Let's unpack the key findings to gain insights about where we stand.
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
The Forgotten Secret Weapon of Digital Marketing: Email
Digital marketing is a rapidly changing, ever evolving industry--Influencers, Threads, X, AI, etc. But one of the most effective digital marketing tools is also one of the oldest: Email. Find out from two Houston-based digital experts how to maximize your results from email.
Key Takeaways:
Email has the best ROI of any digital tactic
It can be used at any stage of the customer journey
It is increasingly important as the cookie-less future gets closer and closer
The digital marketing industry is changing faster than ever and those who don’t adapt with the times are losing market share. Where should marketers be focusing their efforts? What strategies are the experts seeing get the best results? Get up-to-speed with the latest industry insights, trends and predictions for the future in this panel discussion with some leading digital marketing experts.
Digital Commerce Lecture for Advanced Digital & Social Media Strategy at UCLA...Valters Lauzums
E-commerce in 2024 is characterized by a dynamic blend of opportunities and significant challenges. Supply chain disruptions and inventory shortages are critical issues, leading to increased shipping delays and rising costs, which impact timely delivery and squeeze profit margins. Efficient logistics management is essential, yet it is often hampered by these external factors. Payment processing, while needing to ensure security and user convenience, grapples with preventing fraud and integrating diverse payment methods, adding another layer of complexity. Furthermore, fulfillment operations require a streamlined approach to handle volume spikes and maintain accuracy in order picking, packing, and shipping, all while meeting customers' heightened expectations for faster delivery times.
Amid these operational challenges, customer data has emerged as an important strategy. By focusing on personalization and enhancing customer experience from historical behavior, businesses can deliver improved website and brand experienced, better product recommendations, optimal promotions, and content to meet individual preferences. Better data analytics can also help in effectively creating marketing campaigns, improving customer retention, and driving product development and inventory management.
Innovative formats such as social commerce and live shopping are beginning to impact the digital commerce landscape, offering new ways to engage with customers and drive sales, and may provide opportunity for brands that have been priced out or seen a downturn with post-pandemic shopping behavior. Social commerce integrates shopping experiences directly into social media platforms, tapping into the massive user bases of these networks to increase reach and engagement. Live shopping, on the other hand, combines entertainment and real-time interaction, providing a dynamic platform for showcasing products and encouraging immediate purchases. These innovations not only enhance customer engagement but also provide valuable data for businesses to refine their strategies and deliver superior shopping experiences.
The e-commerce sector is evolving rapidly, and businesses that effectively manage operational challenges and implement innovative strategies are best positioned for long-term success.
The What, Why & How of 3D and AR in Digital CommercePushON Ltd
Vladimir Mulhem has over 20 years of experience in commercialising cutting edge creative technology across construction, marketing and retail.
Previously the founder and Tech and Innovation Director of Creative Content Works working with the likes of Next, John Lewis and JD Sport, he now helps retailers, brands and agencies solve challenges of applying the emerging technologies 3D, AR, VR and Gen AI to real-world problems.
In this webinar, Vladimir will be covering the following topics:
Applications of 3D and AR in Digital Commerce,
Benefits of 3D and AR,
Tools to create, manage and publish 3D and AR in Digital Commerce.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
5 big bets to drive growth in 2024 without one additional marketing dollar AND how to adapt to the biggest shifting eCommerce trend- AI.
1) Romance Your Customers - Retention
2) ‘Alternative’ Lead Gen - Advocacy
3) The Beautiful Basics - Conversion Rate Optimization
4) Land that Bottom Line - Profitability
5) Roll the Dice - New Business Models
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
A.I. (artificial intelligence) platforms are popping up all the time, and many of them can and should be used to help grow your brand, increase your sales and decrease your marketing costs.In this presentation:We will review some of the best AI platforms that are available for you to use.We will interact with some of the platforms in real-time, so attendees can see how they work.We will also look at some current brands that are using AI to help them create marketing messages, saving them time and money in the process. Lastly, we will discuss the pros and cons of using AI in marketing & branding and have a lively conversation that includes comments from the audience.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about LLM platforms, like ChatGPT, and how they work, with preset examples and real time interactions with the platform. Attendees will learn about other AI platforms that are creating graphic design elements at the push of a button...pre-set examples and real-time interactions.Attendees will discuss the pros & cons of AI in marketing + branding and share their perspectives with one another. Attendees will learn about the cost savings and the time savings associated with using AI, should they choose to.
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
Mastering Local SEO for Service Businesses in the AI Era is tailored specifically for local service providers like plumbers, dentists, and others seeking to dominate their local search landscape. This session delves into leveraging AI advancements to enhance your online visibility and search rankings through the Content Factory model, designed for creating high-impact, SEO-driven content. Discover the Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy, a cost-effective approach to boost your local SEO efforts and attract more customers with minimal investment. Gain practical insights on optimizing your online presence to meet the specific needs of local service seekers, ensuring your business not only appears but stands out in local searches. This concise, action-oriented workshop is your roadmap to navigating the complexities of digital marketing in the AI age, driving more leads, conversions, and ultimately, success for your local service business.
Key Takeaways:
Embrace AI for Local SEO: Learn to harness the power of AI technologies to optimize your website and content for local search. Understand the pivotal role AI plays in analyzing search trends and consumer behavior, enabling you to tailor your SEO strategies to meet the specific demands of your target local audience. Leverage the Content Factory Model: Discover the step-by-step process of creating SEO-optimized content at scale. This approach ensures a steady stream of high-quality content that engages local customers and boosts your search rankings. Get an action guide on implementing this model, complete with templates and scheduling strategies to maintain a consistent online presence. Maximize ROI with Dollar-a-Day Advertising: Dive into the cost-effective Dollar-a-Day advertising strategy that amplifies your visibility in local searches without breaking the bank. Learn how to strategically allocate your budget across platforms to target potential local customers effectively. The session includes an action guide on setting up, monitoring, and optimizing your ad campaigns to ensure maximum impact with minimal investment.
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
First Things First: Building and Effective Marketing Strategy
Too many companies (and marketers) jump straight into activation planning without formalizing a marketing strategy. It may seem tedious, but analyzing the mindset of your targeted audiences and identifying the messaging points most likely to resonate with them is time well spent. That process is also a great opportunity for marketers to collaborate with sales leaders and account managers on a galvanized go-to-market approach. I’ll walk you through the methods and tools we use with our clients to ensure campaign success.
Key Takeaways:
-Recognize the critical role of strategy in marketing
-Learn our approach for building an actionable, effective marketing strategy
-Receive templates and guides for developing a marketing strategy
2. A CLOSER LOOK AT BOTS
A Vindico Investigation – 1Q2014
3. What’s a Bot?
• An Internet bot is a software application that runs automated
tasks over the Internet
• Bots can be used for good (search indexing) or bad (ad
impressions, hacking, etc.)
• Reports now indicate there is more bot traffic than human traffic
on the Internet
• There are 3 main ‘types’ of bots:
• Crawler/Spider
• Covert Crawler
• Zombie Computers (Botnet)
• Bad bots are impacting the video advertising industry
Crawler/Spider
Covert Crawler
Zombie Computers
4. Bot: Crawler / Spider
• USES: Automated data collection, indexing
• HARDWARE: Typically runs on a cluster of Virtual Machines (VM) on servers located in a
datacenter
• ACTIVITY: Generally just makes ‘GET’ requests to static webpages and analyzes responses
for links, content, etc. Crawler/spiders do not render the webpage in a browser
• EXAMPLES: GoogleBot, BingBot
• DETECTION: These bots usually identify themselves in their user-agent string
• ADS: Typically would not render an ad. In addition, these bots are almost always on the
IAB Bot List and are excluded in impression accounts for MRC accredited ad servers by
leveraging the fact that they identify themselves in their user agent string
• VIEWABILITY: Not Applicable (ads not rendered, impressions filtered)
Benign
5. Bot: Covert Crawler
• USES: Generally malicious – associated with ad fraud, spam, hacking, scraping
• HARDWARE: Typically runs on a cluster of Virtual Machines (VM) on servers located in a
datacenter
• ACTIVITY: Mimics a human with full browsing and rendering behavior (plugins, cookies,
user-agent, mouse movement, time delays, engage with pages of site)
• EXAMPLES: Client Connections Media, VERSA*, DDC*
• ADS: Attempts to trick ad tracking systems so it registers as a true impression. These
crawlers do not identify themselves. In fact, they use a variety of real user-agent strings
that are undistinguishable from real users
• VIEWABILITY: Both geometric and browser optimization approaches to viewability will
think ads are viewable
Generally Malicious
*Source: detailed within this deck
6. Bot: Zombie Computer (Botnet)
Real machines ‘infected’ with software (‘virus,’ ‘worm,’ ‘malware’) that allows
a remote party to take control of various parts of the system.
• USES: Malicious – associated with ad fraud, hacking (bank accounts, emails, credit cards),
Bitcoin Mining, Ransomware
• HARDWARE: Can take over any PC, smart phone, or device. Typically created for
Windows (PC) and Android (mobile) environments, but not limited to those
• ACTIVITY: ‘Borrows’ users’ machine, processing or Internet / IP as a proxy, for opening
invisible browser windows and loading sites/ads, snooping on users. Replication over
network
• EXAMPLES: CryptoLocker, ZeuS, TDSS, ZeroAccess, ASPROX
• ADS: Attempt to trick ad tracking systems so they get paid. Use real user machines,
inherit real user IP addresses, real user agent strings, cookies, etc.
• VIEWABILITY: Exploits geometric viewability flaws
Malicious
7. Bots Have Negative Impact on Video Advertising
• Ad fraud has become an incredibly lucrative business for bot operators, especially with
the rise of online video where CPMs are much higher and detection capabilities have
historically been much lower.
• This has caused two major trends in the industry over the past 2 years:
• Number of impressions to skyrocket
• CPMs to decrease
• The two parties that are negatively impacted the most are advertisers and real
publishers.
• Middle men are still able to make their margin, but lower CPMs force them to use the
(cheaper) fraudulent inventory sources, which therefore continue to feed the beast and
grow the problem.
Soure: Vindico Adtricity, Q1 2014; Annual Estimate based on $15 CPM
8. What Vindico Bot Detection Uncovered
Using the Adtricity system we’ve identified the top 700,000 bots and zombie machines
(botnets) over Q1 2014.
• Initial launch will focus on the top 50% of Bots:
• 11.23% of all Vindico-Adtricity VPAID Imps in Q1
• 7.9B Vindico-Adtricity Bot Impressions in Q1
• $76 million* in fraud in Q1 alone, just in US online video.
• 66% of bot impressions were from ‘zombie computers’; 34% were from
‘covert crawlers’
• Affected Advertisers
• Avg: 10.06% of impressions
• Highest: 52.66% of impressions
• Breakdown by Publishers:
• Highest: 50.9% of impressions
• Media Companies: <2% of impressions
• Networks: 24% of impressions
*Estimate based on $15 CPM
The number of bots is rising and number of impressions
affected are rising (see Q1 trend graph above)
9. Exposing Bots: Covert Crawlers
Covert Crawler ‘Versa’
• Stats: 55 million imps / month = $825k / month*
• Total Sites: 5 Core with at least 100 total
• Notes: Sites are same template, fake display ads, tokenized urls, VMs spoofing
user agents, exact amount of caps ads / IP, rotated screen resolutions, etc.
Distributed Data Center
• 150 million imps / month = $2.2 million / month*
• Top Sites: techbrowsing.com (1/2 the size of all Versa), anchorfree.us,
recipeaccess.com
• Total Sites: 15 – 20 Core with at least 100 total
• 7-10 Core datacenters
• Examples: Host Protocol, EGIHosting, MyPrivateProxy.net, GIGLINX, Alentus%,
ManageDNS
Generally Malicious
*Estimate based on $15 CPM
10. Exposing Bots: Botnets
The Asprox / Kuluoz Botnet
• Currently this botnet is extremely active
• Current main method of initial infection: malware-phishing emails
• WhatsApp Message (via a link)
• Notice to Appear in Court (via an attachment)
• Once installed, it follows the below chain to PPC networks *:
*Source: techhelplist.com
Malicious
12. How to Fight Bots in Video Advertising
Viewability alone is not enough.
• Bots can fool viewability
• Good viewability vendors will record bot impressions as non-viewable, but some bots can
manipulate viewability metrics for the campaign
Bot filtering alone is not enough.
• 1x1 iframes can still be manipulated
Bot filtering + viewability is not enough.
• Certain sites and measurements can be manipulated (i.e. porn sites, player size, etc.)
A combination of multiple metrics including viewability, execution,
content, and traffic are the only way to truly protect ad dollars and grow
the ecosystem to the point where it can truly complement TV for brand
advertisers.
13. How Vindico Helps
There are 3 strategic components to our Detection System:
1. Data Collection
• 40% of all online videos. More data points than anyone else.
2. Data Processing
• Big Data.
• Adtricity servers processes over 1 million events every minute.
• This data has to be logged, loaded, and ready for analysis in real time.
• Even Hadoop, the most well known Big Data framework, was not
enough.
• Adtricity utilizes a cutting edge Big Data framework called Spark.
3. Data Analysis
More data than a human could ever analyze.
Adtricity uses cognitive thinking (artificial intelligence) through machine
learning to detect and block bots in real time. Adtricity is a comprehensive measure of quality
offering a standardized and transparent system of
measurement to the industry. Adtricity brings together
viewability and verification into a single solution.
14. Conclusion
Bots have infiltrated the video advertising industry and are increasing scale and impressions at an alarming rate.
Vindico’s Bot Detection technology was developed to help advertisers combat fraudulent activity in video advertising. Bot detection is most powerful when
part of a buy-side platform as it is organically integrated from the point of delivery and can be used across the full scope of the advertiser’s buy.