“I visualise a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.” Claude Shannon once said. Shannon could not have been more correct. From handling customer service inquiries to streamlining data collection, bots offer marketers new ways to automate repetitive tasks and optimise workflows. However, 47.4% of all Internet traffic in 2022 was from bots with 30.2% classified as bad bots. “Good bots are used in digital marketing like any other field to automate processes. The beauty of digital marketing is that everything is trackable and measurable here, unlike physical marketing. We use bots, crawlers, scripts, etc., for tracking and measurement. Nowadays, there is a lot of AI model training, for which also there are BOTs which crawl web spaces and capture data. Unfortunately, there is a dark side as well. Here BOTs are used by bad actors to jack up their performance and results. Simple ways could be inflating impressions, clicks, views and other vanity metrics commonly used in digital marketing,” Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst and founder, Techarc, told BrandWagon Online. Similarly, in social media marketing, we have invalid followers, views and engagements where some people use these ways of showing huge followership on social media, he added. As businesses increasingly rely on these automated systems, the question arises: Are bots an asset or a liability for digital marketing?
The good, the bad and the bots!
There is no doubt of the fact that artificial intelligence has brought on a significant revolution in the world. The global market revenue forecast for AI in marketing is $107 billion by 2028, according to Statista. “We leverage automation and AI-powered bots to streamline various marketing processes. Our AI agents can generate surveys based on real-time insights, analyse research responses, and optimise ad targeting. These automated tasks significantly reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and enable marketers to focus on more strategic initiatives. For Smytten, our chatbot integration orchestrates support conversations leading to a 30% increase in the CSAT reducing manual intervention significantly,” Swagat Sarangi, co-founder, Smytten Pulse, revealed. From chatbots that can provide customer service round the clock, answer basic queries, and even manage purchases to data gathering bots providing critical insights, and harvesting valuable information on market trends and consumer behaviour which can be used to tailor marketing campaigns more effectively, it is safe to say that bots are deeply embedded into the world of digital marketing. “We recognise automation as an essential element in optimising our marketing strategies. By integrating various bots into our operations, we simplify repetitive tasks such as data collection, reporting, and customer interactions. This not only improves efficiency but also allows our team to focus on strategic initiatives that drive results. Automation helps us respond quickly to market changes and client needs, ensuring that we deliver timely and relevant solutions,” Saloni Mittal, founder, The Creative Nose, added.
Ad bots, another category, automatically place and optimise advertisements across different platforms, increasing efficiency for marketers. But when every dark cloud has a silver lining, the opposite too should make sense as not all bots are benign. Bad bots are programs designed to commit fraud or maliciously interfere with marketing activities thereby posing serious threats. They can inflate key metrics like clicks and impressions, draining advertising budgets while providing misleading data that skews marketing strategies. Ad fraud from bots is expected to cost businesses globally over $100 billion by 2025, a report by Juniper Research revealed. These fraudulent bots distort the performance metrics marketers depend on, leading to poor return on investment (RoI) and ineffective retargeting strategies. When bots inflate click-through rates or impressions, the data marketers use for campaign optimisation becomes unreliable. This means retargeting efforts and customer journey mapping are built on corrupted data, rendering marketing campaigns less effective. “The bots have evolved with time. While general bots can be identified by basic rule checks, sophisticated bots have human-like behaviour which is difficult to spot. They can not only see or click on an ad but also fill a lead or make a purchase. At mFilterIt, we go beyond the basic thumb rule checks and do a full-funnel analysis of the ad traffic to identify sophisticated patterns of the bots,” Dhiraj Gupta, CTO and co-founder, mFilterIt, added. Bad bots account for nearly 27% of all web traffic, according to Imperva’s 2024 Bad Bot Report, creating a ripple effect that misguides marketing decisions and wastes valuable resources. Furthermore, according to the World Federation of Advertisers, ad fraud from bots could cost businesses over $50 billion annually by 2024.
Poison to the marketing ecosystem?
The ramifications of bad bots extend far beyond just inflated metrics—they have a ripple effect on the entire digital marketing ecosystem. Brands are often the first to feel the financial impact. When bots drive up clicks, impressions, or conversions falsely, companies end up overpaying for advertising without generating genuine interest or sales. These misaligned metrics can lead to poor decisions in future campaigns, ultimately damaging a brand’s ROI. “Marketers are moving away from vanity metrics like CTR, focusing instead on meaningful indicators like customer lifetime value and conversions. The trend is toward evaluating long-term ROI based on genuine audience interactions, avoiding decisions driven by bot-inflated data,” Akshay Garkel, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat, revealed.
For publishers, bad bots can undermine their relationships with advertisers. When publishers unknowingly serve ads to bots rather than humans, their ad inventory becomes devalued. This results in diminished trust from advertisers, who may choose to take their business elsewhere. In industries like gaming, where nearly 58.7% of traffic comes from bad bots, the stakes are especially high, as fake traffic leads to distorted engagement rates. Ad networks and digital platforms are equally affected. Experts opine that as their business models depend on delivering actual user engagement, and when bot traffic compromises this, their credibility takes a hit. The Imperva report further emphasises the growing complexity of this problem, noting that data centres and mobile ISPs are increasingly becoming prime sources of bad bot traffic. Ad networks must now contend with sophisticated bots that mimic legitimate users by disguising themselves as mobile browsers like Mobile Safari, which accounted for 20.2% of bad bot traffic in 2022. This added complexity makes it harder for networks to ensure the quality of impressions sold to advertisers. “Advertisers and publishers minimise ad spend wastage by using automated bot detection to filter out invalid traffic before campaigns go live. This involves real-time monitoring to identify and block bot activity, including non-human clicks and fake impressions, ensuring budgets are used for reaching genuine audiences. Continuous updating of detection algorithms helps adapt to evolving bot behaviours, further protecting ad budgets from fraudulent activity and improving the accuracy of campaign metrics,” Gupta added.
The financial blow
The financial toll of bot activity in digital marketing is staggering. Invalid traffic (IVT) driven by bots drains advertising budgets and results in poor returns. A common scenario is where brands think their ad campaigns are driving engagement, only to find out later that much of the traffic came from bots. Advanced bad bots now represent 51.2% of bad bot traffic, the report revealed. These bots not only waste marketing spend but also open up businesses to significant risks, from data breaches to fraudulent transactions. “When money is spent on digital marketing but engagement comes from bots rather than genuine users, it results in negative RoI and RoAS. The funds invested in driving engagement through these artificial interactions fail to yield meaningful results in terms of sales, revenue, or other performance metrics. Consequently, the brand’s marketing spend is diluted, producing negative or reverse outcomes with no tangible value towards business objectives,” Kawoosa added.
In response, many companies are turning to bot management solutions to combat the growing threat. “We prioritise transparency and accountability in our campaigns. We provide our clients with detailed reports that include insights into traffic quality and bot activity. By using our sophisticated tracking systems, we help advertisers and publishers identify and eliminate fraudulent traffic, thereby minimising ad spend wastage. Our goal is to ensure that every dollar spent contributes to genuine engagement and conversions,” Mittal explained. Platforms like DoubleVerify and White Ops have developed advanced fraud detection systems that use machine learning to identify and block bot traffic.
Ad networks and publishers are increasingly adopting these technologies to protect the integrity of their data and restore advertiser trust. First-party data is also gaining traction as a way to mitigate the influence of bots, allowing marketers to work with more reliable data sets that are less susceptible to external manipulation. “Fortunately, some proactive, digitally aware brands recognise bot-driven engagement as more than just a minor inefficiency, typically 3-5% of marketing spend. They understand the broader impact, from harming brand reputation to distorting business processes across functions like HR and legal,” Kawoosa explained. For example, digital marketers’ performance appraisals can be skewed by bots, as their efforts won’t show accurate results, leading to diluted KPIs. Similarly, bots can cause legal complications, such as brand infringement, affecting multiple areas of the business, he added.
The road (block) ahead?
The future of bots in digital marketing is complex. On one hand, bots will continue to play a crucial role in automating marketing processes, making it easier for brands to scale their efforts. On the other, the rise of evasive bots and API-targeted bot attacks suggests that the battle against bad bots will only intensify. Imperva predicts that in 2023, APIs will become a prime target for bad bots, as they offer direct access to valuable data, making them vulnerable to scraping and other forms of malicious activity. “Our platform is equipped with a sophisticated suite of AI-powered bots, including analytics bots, recommendation bots, social media bots, ad bots, and generative AI bots. These bots work seamlessly together to automate routine tasks, optimise campaigns, and deliver highly personalised experiences at scale. For instance, our analytics bots provide real-time insights into customer behaviour, enabling data-driven decision-making. Recommendation bots offer tailored product suggestions, enhancing customer satisfaction and increasing conversions. Social media bots engage with customers on various platforms, fostering brand loyalty and driving awareness,” Manoj Karunakaran, VP- technology, BC Web Wise, added.
With AI driving an increase in bot usage, both good and bad bots are likely to coexist. Ideally, we should see only good bots, but as long as marketers, brands, and investors chase quick ‘growth hacks’ that involve harmful bot practices, the issue will persist. Technology alone won’t solve this; while countermeasures will evolve alongside bad bots, a broader approach is needed. “I believe the industry should adopt a self-regulatory framework with zero tolerance for bad bots, making it part of corporate governance audits. Companies that use or promote bad bots should face heavy fines or even blacklisting. There’s also a need for a neutral, third-party ecosystem to act as a referee between brands, digital marketing agencies, and their partners,” Kawoosa commented.
Ultimately, the question that looms is whether the digital marketing ecosystem can keep pace with the ever-evolving tactics of bad bots. As bots become more sophisticated, the need for robust bot management systems and collaborative industry efforts will be key in determining whether bots remain a powerful ally or a significant threat to the future of digital marketing.