Have you ever launched a digital ad campaign and gotten more clicks reported from your DSP in the first 24 hours than for the following week? Have you ever run a B2B prospect email campaign that reported a click-through rate that was higher than the open rate?
There is no need to be concerned, becuase most of these automated actions are approval and verification processes intended to protect publishers and audiences. Nevertheless, there are plenty of other 'Bots' or non-human traffic (NHT) that can and will artificially inflate digital marketing campaign results. There are tools available to help advertisers detect fraud, but the most efficient way for most of us to handle it is to rely on our marketing technology and marketing services providers.
Programmatic B2B relies on our DSP partners to do this for us, and while there are still some 'good bots' being reported, we are able to accurately report campaign performance net of testing and supply-side approvals. But this alone falls short for direct response marketers who really want to know who their messages are 'talking to'. For this reason, we propose that the first step is always to start with real people. A great example of this is how one of our partners (video below) leverages massive epostal and mobile databases to construct audiences for cross-channel and cross-device targeting.
An opt-in database of real people is the best immune system and a powerfull asset for 'AntiBotic' Digital Marketing. When performance is measured against control and sales are matched at the individual level, it's much easier to validate real engagement and digital marketing efficacy.