Several weeks ago, it was discovered that many profiles on adulterous website Ashley Madison were fake. It was discovered women were hired to create fake accounts to lure men seeking extramarital affairs. Apparently, Ashley Madison isn’t the only ones using fake trafficking.
As it turns out, more and more digital ad viewers are bots. Less and less are human beings. One study done by Association of National Advertisers showed many ads were viewed by software. One Chrysler computer ad that aired on Saveur.tv revealed only two percent of ad views were human. When Chrysler found this out, they stopped buying ad time and space from Saveur. Chrysler isn’t the only ones in this predicament. Researchers say fake ads and fraudulent advertising will cost businesses over $6.3 billion a year. In fact, fake traffic is big business and has been for years. Malware is involved, brokers sell it, and some companies even deliberately pay for it. Others do so accidentally, not knowing or not even caring where the traffic comes from. The traffic market is highly unregulated. As often the case, anything that’s too good to be true probably is.
Beware of offers selling you 1,000 visits for a dollar. Chances are, none of those are human beings. Real human web traffic will likely cost between 20 and 90 cents a visitor. Never settle for paying one or two cents per click. At best, you’ll get pop-up ads. That could lead to sales. Big emphasis on could. You’ll probably get botnet traffic, which isn’t human. Last time I checked, botnet hasn’t bought a good, service, or product online yet.? Ten cents per click, you’ll get traffic from major publishers, but most of it will be to basic sites and blogs, reviews, and listings. But at least the traffic you invest in will be human. For over a dollar a click, you can go Google Adwords and get real humans who specifically want your good or service. But who has the money to pay over a dollar per click? How many small and struggling businesses starting out have that kind of budget? Do you see a cycle here?