The Programmatic Glossary
A practical glossary designed to help marketers, advertisers and ad-tech professionals understand the terminology that powers programmatic advertising
Fraud & Brand Safety
Bot Traffic
Web traffic that's generated by automated computer programs (bots) rather than real human visitors. Bots browse websites, click on ads and trigger video views artificially, creating the illusion of a large audience that doesn't actually exist.
HOW IT WORKS
Fraudsters deploy networks of bots, sometimes using hacked home computers or cloud servers, to visit websites and interact with ads. Sophisticated bots mimic human behaviour: they move their mouse, scroll down pages and vary their browsing patterns to avoid detection. They generate fake impressions that advertisers pay for.
EXAMPLE
An advertiser runs a display campaign and sees impressive CTRs (Click-Through Rates) and high impression volumes. On closer inspection using IVT (Invalid Traffic) detection tools, they discovered that 40% of the traffic came from bots operating in data centres. They were effectively paying for ads seen only by machines
RELATED TERMS
Invalid Traffic (IVT) | Ad Fraud | Traffic Scoring | Brand Safety | Domain Laundering
★ LIMELIGHT INSIGHT: Limelight integrates with leading IVT detection vendors to filter bot traffic from the supply chain, protecting advertiser spend across the platform.
