Bots

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Subscribe to AdExchanger Talks on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts. The fight against ad fraud is not over, but progress has been made, says Michael Tiffany, president and co-founder of bot detection and cybersecurity company White Ops. For example, back in the day, around 2012 through 2014, purchasing […]

For two years, the 404bot worked unchecked, exploiting a flaw in the ads.txt spec that cost advertisers $15 million in wasted video ads. The 404bot served 1.5 billion video ads, according to Integral Ad Science, which revealed the scheme Tuesday with a warning for the industry, including for publishers to audit their ads.txt files. Ads.txt […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Long Live The CMO Two years after Coca-Cola retired its CMO role, kicking off what would turn into a trend among big brands, the job title is back. The company has promoted 24-year veteran Manolo Arroyo to CMO, Ad Age reports. But it’s not […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Blockchain Fever While still buzzy, advertisers are starting to test blockchain as a tool that can shine a light on the digital supply chain. Marketers such as AB InBev, AT&T, Kellogg’s, Bayer and Nestle are using the technology to measure the flow of their […]

Purch, publisher of LiveScience and TopTenReviews, added three layers of defense to its anti-fraud system in October. In addition to pre-screening for bots twice, Purch now detects bots, malware and ad quality in real time. “Better-quality traffic means higher ad performance and higher CPMs,” said Purch CTO John Potter. “This is a trend. Demand sources […]

Bots are to web traffic what broken turnstiles are to amusement parks – they make it impossible to get an accurate read on how many people are coming through the door, and that messes with optimization. But at least in the case of a physical location, the visitors are human. On Thursday, bot detection company Distil […]

Blood in the water brings sharks, and high CPMs bring bots. And political spenders, who often outbid brands on targeted inventory, are uniquely vulnerable to digital fraud and bots. “All the ingredients that typically happen for fraud are a part of the political marketplace,” said Mark Schlosser, senior sales director at the ad fraud security […]

The messenger app Kik, a chat service catering to teens, debuted its Bot Shop on Monday. The shop lets Kik users download chatbots – automated apps meant to simulate real conversation. The shop currently features 16 bots from companies like Vine, H&M, Funny or Die, The Weather Channel and J-14 (a celebrity mag geared toward […]