{"id":12890,"date":"2020-09-29T23:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T23:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.openbusinesscouncil.org\/?p=12890"},"modified":"2020-11-09T04:04:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-09T04:04:18","slug":"how-much-do-bot-farms-really-cost-your-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footballthink.com\/how-much-do-bot-farms-really-cost-your-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much Do Bot Farms Really Cost Your Business?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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PPC fraud costs businesses a lot of money per year. By some estimates, businesses are losing up to 20% of their advertising budgets to bot farms. But what are these bots, and how do they cost businesses so much money?<\/p>\n

Bots: An Overview<\/h2>\n

Bots are automated programs that are used to perform tasks at a rate that humans cannot. They have been used in many different ways online, including to scrape data from a website so that it can get ranked for finding contact information for thousands of people online. Although this shows why these bots are useful, there are some massive downsides in the form of malicious use.<\/p>\n

Because they can perform repetitive tasks continuously, bots are being used in click and ad fraud. These bots click on your links and ads until your budget runs out, or make keywords so competitive<\/a>, therefore more expensive, that you are unable to pay for them. The effects of both of these things are that people no longer see your ads and links, which decreases the number of visitors you get, thereby decreasing your profits.<\/p>\n

Are You Being Targeted?<\/h2>\n

The answer to this question lies in your analytics. Certain metrics will tell you if you are being targeted. They include:<\/p>\n