How to clean the campaign from bot traffic
A single bot is just a computer programm, which is often rather simple. Still, it can cause a lot of harm to your campaign and lead to big losses. So, it would be a great idea first to identify them, and then to cut these waste traffic. The whole issue isn't as complicated as it looks.
Tips to detect bots
A great many bots are so simple that they don't have the means to operate undetected. Use it to detect these harmful programs. First, they often do not run Javascript, while most of your real visitors do. Then, bots might download random pages without any analysis of info they contain.
Second, they are a piece of code and don?t need time to look through the page. The third issue is that humans have a longer reaction time when reading the pages. Bots are much faster, if they don?t copy human?s behavior.
The mentioned principles of detecting the ?campaign pests? are simple, but they do work. If you think your traffic is full of bots, just follow them to unveil these harmful programs. For example, when you?re getting a lot of traffic without any conversion even after optimization, it is the first signal to start ?bot detection?.
You should also understand that there are much more complicated and smart programs and you won?t detect them using the mentioned methods. However, they?ll help you to clean your campaign from a great variety of simple bots.
How to understand that your landing page is a dwelling for bots?
There is a method that will help you to see, if there is any waste traffic on your lander. Note: it won?t show the source of bots, just the fact they are here. To get the results you should run a very simple test that will not harm your landing page.
The first thing you need is to create a transparent 1x1 format GIF. Then just upload it to your server or any image site. The next step is a personal account on Bit.ly, which will give you the statistics. Also, create a shortened link of your image. After that you should copy the following code and paste it before the tag ?body? of your landing page.
<script type='text/javascript'>
function changeimage()<
document.getElementById("myimage").src="Your Bit.ly Link";
>
</script>
The part "Your Bit.ly Link" must be changed for the actual link you?ve already created. The second part of the code should be added directly to the tag ?body?.
onload="setTimeout(changeimage, 300);"
At last, the third section must be copied and pasted right to the bottom of the landing page.
<img src="broken" id="myimage">
Before all the preparations you need to check the current number of visitors. Then wait for another 100 visitors after the test was launched. In the end, visit Bit.ly to get the ?click? statistics.
To be continued?