80 Percent of Facebook Ad Clicks Came From Bots, Firm Says

[rak]

I hear this from people all the time "the facebook ad's was a failure for me"

There might be some credence to that statement. The below article seems to be spreading like wildfire.

A New York-based startup is ditching Facebook after it discovered some questionable activity on the social network's ad platform.

Limited Run, which develops e-commerce platforms for musicians and labels, claims that 80 percent of the clicks for which Facebook was charging came from bots, not real Facebook users.

http://www.latimes.com/business/tech...,1602559.story

[oc+]

Thanks for pointing that out rak - very interesting. We have been contacted a few times over the lest week from FB with regards to advertisers, their pricing, their strict positioning rules, and now this means we can rarely recommend them to clients.

[bboyspyder]

I tend to agree with this. Only 20-30% of the clicks are showing up on my website tracking software. This is not normal I think. I started testing out facebook ads with coupons. Once I am done with them I dump them. Better invest in quality high pr backlinks than facebook ads.

[Brooke]

FB is a strange buy for me, outside of the bott's (which I don't believe make up 80% of the clicks in general), the player value is on the lower side and the programs for which FB traffic converts on seem to have no rhyme or reason.

[the_soc]

somehow this just stacks up with a gut feeling I had about facebook in general... and their stock-price is looking like it's also 80% hot air....

[bboyspyder]

What else is cheap enough and could be use to get some targeted traffic?

[Maria F]

Facebook has questionable private data policies, so to me it has never been a 100% reliable tool. Since it is free, I would post promos now and again but with low expectations. Your post Rak, backs up my gut feeling about facebook.

[samantha.pacquiao]

This is so true! Our marketing people, new staff and old.. had shared same thing as you said Rak. Though as it's been always hard now a days to find good traffic.. we tried and failed. Not very reliable as how we expect it to be. Maria is right you can post promos but with low expectations. You can gain something out of it but not as what all else expect it be.

[GoldCup]

The issue of fraud traffic – and in particular bots – within any media buying business is pretty staggering. The latest problem to hit Facebook doesn't surprise me!

A UK tech start-up I know, TrafficCake.com showed even reputable ad-networks delivering 30%+ fraud traffic, whilst some of the smaller traffic sellers, particularly those targeting small affiliates and internet marketers unashamedly send 100% bot traffic. They continue to operate with impunity, often from territories beyond the grasp of authorities. When their website or Pay-Pal account is shut down they simply open up new identities.

And my own belief, but it's only gut feeling, is that fraud traffic is worse with the gaming ad-networks. Firstly because they know it's a niche and the wider ad-networks don't always accept gaming, and secondly, the money at stake is so large. It simply encourages greed on their part (with little prospect of getting caught!).