Bots are dangerous for more reasons than one. Here are some of the ways that fake clicks may harm your business online.
The online marketplace might be global, but that means there are whole worlds of inventive methods of hacking out there. Bots hover in a grey area. They are not quite hackers, and they are not quite innocent.
They exist to perform automated intelligence-gathering tasks, but that’s not all they do. Bots will churn through whatever data is in front of them, relentlessly researching or fixing their data.
They can harm your business in their relentless pursuit.
The 5 Ways Fraudulent Clicks are Bad for Business
So, if you run an SME that is investing in the world of advertising, fraudulent clicks might be hurting you.
1 – They Cost You Money
The first answer is the most obvious one. According to industry experts Lunio, there are ways you can see what percentage of clicks are fraudulent, and act accordingly.
A click fraud service lets you see how much of your digital ad spend is lost to fake accounts and spam-clicking bots. Every time an automated system clicks your ad to trawl for information, it counts as one click towards the total that you pay for.
If you pay by the thousand and 5% of them are bots, this soon adds up.
2 – They Waste Your Time
Not only does this fake clicking cost you money, but it also costs you time. Every minute you spend creating an ad that is lost to bots is a minute wasted.
Fake clicks lead you to create advertising campaigns targeted toward individuals that were created by the ads. This leads you down the wrong path to defining your customer personas.
3 – They Confuse Your Metrics
If you are using your ad campaign to generate datasets of your own, ad clicks will confuse things. They might act out of pattern or otherwise behave inconsistently with previous information.
You can’t define your audience accurately when you have missing or corrupt information to work with.
4 – They Could Be Hackers
There are types of bots that attach to your site and specifically look for user information. They might watch your login pages until users try to interact with your site.
They could then steal the data from those users and use that data to log into your site. This could lead to fake orders, bad leads, and a general nuisance for your users. Worst of all, this sows distrust. If your clients don’t trust your site, they won’t shop with you.
5 – Bots Impact Consumer Privacy
The worst part about a bad bot isn’t that it will lock users out of their accounts or steal their usernames. The worst part is the reputation damage that these things do to both your site and your business.
Bots are bad for business because they erode consumer loyalty and trust in your expertise. Putting on a business face isn’t just a personal thing, it needs to happen online, too. If you are not experts in your own site, how can you be experts in your field? Keep up your cybersecurity and don’t let bots affect you.
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