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I work for an AdTech company. One of our selling points is that we track much time users actively spent on our ads (= ad is in viewport + tab is active + user h

I work for an AdTech company. One of our selling points is that we track much time users actively spent on our ads (= ad is in viewport + tab is active + user has moved the mouse or scrolled in the past 20 seconds). If we consistently see a source of traffic spending < 30 secs, then we manually start digging into the logs. If you're a brand/marketer, I recommend two easy things to increase your ROI: (1) Make sure you are not being charged for GoogleBot traffic. Seriously, for frequently updating sites, self-advertising GoogleBot can account for up to 10% of all impressions. Ad Networks can easily filter that traffic out. (2) If you're paying per impression, work with partners that charge on viewable CPM.

nkozyra 11y ago
Are there seriously ad companies that aren't filtering out common bots by UA in 2015? That seems unlikely but would be very disturbing if true. Second, I think simple tests like "time spent on ads" as a trigger is an extremely simplisitc, inefficient and likely inaccurate way of determining "potentially not human." The systems here are very complex, designed to mimic randomness within humanesque constraints.
- papercruncher 11y ago
  Yes, sadly there are. It's not necessarily out of malice, a lot of folks just don't grasp how big spider traffic is. Even Google Analytics doesn't filter out crawlers by default, that setting is buried somewhere in the admin panel. You're right, "time spent on ad unit" is simplistic but it's not inefficient. It shouldn't be the only thing in your arsenal but it's a good signal. I reckon you are also overestimating the amount of sophistication that goes into these systems. The ones that are out for purchase in a black market become well-understood within a few weeks and are easy to fingerprint. Since the network is paying on net-30 days, there is some time to retroactively run some analysis and filter out provably non-human traffic.

nkozyra 11y ago

Are there seriously ad companies that aren't filtering out common bots by UA in 2015? That seems unlikely but would be very disturbing if true. Second, I think simple tests like "time spent on ads" as a trigger is an extremely simplisitc, inefficient and likely inaccurate way of determining "potentially not human." The systems here are very complex, designed to mimic randomness within humanesque constraints.

papercruncher 11y ago
Yes, sadly there are. It's not necessarily out of malice, a lot of folks just don't grasp how big spider traffic is. Even Google Analytics doesn't filter out crawlers by default, that setting is buried somewhere in the admin panel. You're right, "time spent on ad unit" is simplistic but it's not inefficient. It shouldn't be the only thing in your arsenal but it's a good signal. I reckon you are also overestimating the amount of sophistication that goes into these systems. The ones that are out for purchase in a black market become well-understood within a few weeks and are easy to fingerprint. Since the network is paying on net-30 days, there is some time to retroactively run some analysis and filter out provably non-human traffic.