Data showed that the sectors most affected by invalid trafficking were finance, marketing, manufacturing, e-commerce and education
Bots, click farms and automation tools correspond to 18% of total clicks on the internet, a percentage that represents an increase of 58% compared to the previous year, according to data from the global research “State of Fake Traffic Report”, carried out by technology company Cheq.
According to the company, the use of artificial intelligence by digital criminals accelerated growth, generating losses for businesses, compromising security and wasting digital campaign resources.
“Algorithms must be increasingly sophisticated to deal with more intelligent threats that cause serious consequences for advertisers by distorting real consumer behavior and wasting investments in PPC (Pay-per-Click) campaigns”, explained Michel Bekhor from SmartClick, Cheq’s partner in Brazil.
According to the survey, the sectors most affected by invalid trafficking in 2023 were finance, marketing, manufacturing, e-commerce and education. Furthermore, the data also pointed to a 32% growth in malicious bots and a 20% increase in the use of automation systems compared to the previous year, with 71% of fake traffic being made via desktop and 29% via mobile phone. .
Among the information brought by the study is the fact that 4.1% of interactions in paid traffic are false and, according to Bekhor, for every thousand reais invested, the company loses R$41. “Fighting this loss is at the top of the priorities of advertisers”, explained the executive.
The analysis used a base of 34 billion clicks received by thousands of domains to generate an accurate report of the digital landscape, with key trends, tools, operating systems and impacts on different advertiser segments.
