The Bot Baseline Fraud in Digital Advertising

BOTS ARE BUILT TO FOOL ALL STAKEHOLDERSIN THE DIGITAL ADVERTISING SUPPLY CHAINSome links in the bot supply chainare unaware of the bots in theirtraffic and do not intend to profitillicitly, while others activelyencourage and concentrate bottraffic to increase profits.Bot suppliers fool all stakeholders in the digital advertising chain:Advertiser’s marketing teamPublisher’s ad operations teamAgency’s media planning teamPublisher’s sales organizationAgency’s media buying teamPublisher’s ad serverAgency’s ad serverThird-party ad verification servicesAgency’s analytics and optimization team Advertiser’s internal audit controlsEach bot heist occurs in a matter of milliseconds and is often undetectable to the victim. Bot suppliers repeat these automatedheists at the scale of hundreds of millions of times per day, creating enormous scope and reach in their fraud.SOURCESOF BOTSBot ScriptPHANTOM LAYERPhantom WebsitesSold as clicks,views, video plays,or social media likesSUPPLIERSeller of TrafficProvides whatthe broker requests,often clicksBROKERBroker of TrafficService-orientedmedia companies thatdo campaign managementand audience extensionPUBLISHERBuyer and Reseller ofTraffic and ClicksBoth premium and longtailsites and networksMeasured impressionsADVERTISEROR AGENCYBuyer of MediaPlacementsAnonymizingnetwork or proxyLarge PPCNetworkImpressionHandlers(platformsand exchanges)PublisherPublisherNetwork and ExchangesAdAdAdAdBotnetAnonymizingSearch EngineTrafficPhantom LayerTraffic Mixes withLegitimate TrafficNetworksAudienceExtension orOther SupplierNetworkExchangesSecondaryPhantom SiteFigure 6: A Phantom Layer Generates and Launders Fraudulent Web TrafficBot impressions originate from malicious bot suppliers and pass through both legitimate and phantom layerelements of the digital advertising ecosystem. Phantom layer elements are websites operated specifically forthe purposes of laundering ad fraud.23