LAGOS – A new report has revealed that advertisers would lose about $6.3 billion (about N1.2 trillion) to fraud and internet bots which mimic human engagements in 2015.
According to zdnet.com, the Bot Baseline: Fraud in Digital Advertising, was conducted by a security firm, White Ops and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), based in New York.
Both firms estimated that billions would be lost next year due to the use of the bots systems.
“Bots are automated entities which mimic the behavior of humans engaging with an advert — whether clicking on a link or watching a video — which dupes an advertiser into believing they have an audience.
“The cyber criminal sets up fake ads and websites, uses bots to deliver fake click-rates and non-existent audiences, and the advertiser pays out, without any benefit, “the report said.
The study tracked 36 major ANA member companies, including Ford, Honda, Home Depot, Verizon, Pfizer and Walmart and their online advertising campaigns — 181 in total — from August to October.
The researchers discovered that major brands are just as vulnerable to being duped as businesses which invest in low-price ads, and 5.5 billion ad impressions in total were analysed.
The researchers believed that bots are not easy to detect, they however advised advertisers to take the first step to attempt to detect them by analyzing ad impressions and patterns.
They noted that the merit of the report lay in spurring brands to take action. (NAN)