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Recently a story made headlines that provided a real-life lesson on the importance of marketers verifying their digital media buys. Ozy Media, a US-based media and entertainment company, inflated its audience numbers by purchasing website traffic. The problem with purchasing traffic is that this traffic is often not human, and non-human traffic doesn’t offer marketers any real ROI.
This example highlights a broader issue in the industry, which is why it is essential for marketers to have independent assurance that the sites they advertise on have taken steps to ensure the traffic they deliver is human.
Here we look at what marketers need to know about the quality of website traffic and why it’s important to select media partners that participate in third-party audits.
Traffic sourcing 101
Traffic sourcing is any method by which publishers acquire visitors through third parties. For simplicity, let’s separate “traffic sourcing” into two types: legitimate marketing activity and illegitimate traffic sourcing.
Legitimate marketing activities include posting articles on social media, buying sponsored social posts or display ads, sending an e-mail newsletter or running a contest. These are legitimate audience acquisition methods that attract people who might be interested in the content and advertisements provided on the sites.
Illegitimate traffic sourcing occurs when a publisher pays a traffic supplier for a fixed number of visits to their website, often at the end of the month or quarter to fulfill a campaign. The problem with this type of sourcing is that the traffic is likely robotic. The publisher might not know that this traffic is robotic because it may appear human in their web analytics, ad serving or fraud detection reports. It might also appear to be human traffic in the advertiser’s fraud detection reports.
When a publisher purchases traffic, it may look legitimate, but bots can’t produce meaningful conversions such as making purchases or requesting more information. When ads are shown to bots, marketers are wasting money that could be better spent with a publisher that provides a valid human audience that can deliver meaningful engagement.
