Table of contents
Invalid Traffic
What is Invalid Traffic?
Invalid traffic refers to any traffic that is not legitimate or valid, such as bots, spiders, or fake clicks. It can also include traffic from sources that are not authorized to access a website or application, such as unauthorized IP addresses or devices. Valid traffic, on the other hand, refers to traffic that is legitimate and comes from legitimate sources, such as human users. Understanding the difference between valid and invalid traffic is important for measuring website traffic and analyzing user behavior.
Bidding on this traffic is wasteful for both advertisers and retailers for several reasons:
Cost Efficiency: Invalid traffic, also known as click fraud or non-human traffic, can waste advertisers' budgets by generating fake clicks or impressions. By identifying and filtering out invalid traffic, advertisers can ensure their advertising spend is used effectively and reaches real potential customers.
Accurate Performance Metrics: Invalid traffic can skew performance metrics, making it difficult for advertisers to measure the true impact and success of their advertising campaigns. By eliminating invalid traffic, advertisers can obtain more accurate data on click-through rates, conversions, and other key performance indicators.
Protecting Brand Reputation: Invalid traffic can harm an advertiser's brand reputation. For example, if an ad is shown on websites involved in fraudulent activities or in a context that is not aligned with the advertiser's values, it can negatively impact their brand image. Avoiding invalid traffic helps advertisers maintain a positive and trustworthy brand presence.
Ad Fraud Prevention: Invalid traffic is often associated with ad fraud, where individuals or automated systems manipulate ad impressions or clicks to generate illegitimate revenue. Advertisers want to avoid falling victim to ad fraud schemes, which can result in significant financial losses.
Ensuring Targeted Reach: Advertisers want to reach their intended audience and maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns. By avoiding invalid traffic, they can focus on delivering their ads to real users who are more likely to engage with their brand or make a purchase.
To combat invalid traffic, Criteo gives advertisers various fraud prevention options to work with.
Filtering Unsafe and Invalid Traffic with IAS
Ensuring the safety and legitimacy of ad impressions is paramount to Criteo. To address this, Commerce Yield has integrated with IAS (Integral Ad Science) to provide pre-bid invalid traffic filtering service. This article provides a concise guide on activating and using this service effectively, enhancing campaign performance and providing peace of mind.
Step 1: Activating the IAS Pre-Bid Filtering Service: Follow these steps to start filtering unsafe and invalid traffic before bidding:
Login and navigate to account settings.
Enable the IAS pre-bid filtering service under Traffic Safety or Invalid Traffic Filtering
Toggle the switch to ON and save the settings.
Step 2: Understanding the Filtering Process: Upon activation, Commerce Yield sends relevant bid request details to IAS, including URL or app bundle and IP or device ID. IAS classifies each request into these categories:
Safe Source: Trustworthy and legitimate impressions.
Not Rated Source: Evaluating sources not yet rated by IAS.
Moderate Risk Source: Sources requiring closer scrutiny.
High Risk Source: Potentially unsafe or invalid sources.
IAS analyzes all bid request types, including web/mobile app, video, and display.
Step 3: Leveraging the Filtering Results: Maximize the filtering results from IAS with these tips:
Prioritize Safe Sources: Focus on bidding for impressions classified as safe.
Caution with Not Rated Sources: Exercise additional discretion when considering bidding on unrated impressions.
Scrutinize Moderate and High Risk Sources: Approach bidding on these sources cautiously, performing risk assessments.
Advertisers can activate the integrated IAS pre-bid filtering service to effectively filter out unsafe and invalid traffic. Safeguard ad budget and brand reputation, prevent ad fraud, and optimize advertising reach.