What is Invalid Traffic (IVT)?
 

Also referred to as Nonhuman Traffic (NHT) or Suspicious Activity Detection (SAD), IVT is online traffic generated from machines or other bot activity that interacts with digital ads. This traffic does not fulfil any ad serving quality in terms of ad clicks and impressions. In most cases, clicks and impressions not made with genuine interest are considered invalid traffic. In the world of mobile advertising, IVT disguised as human behaviour is a huge issue.

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IVT, generally, comprises of the following: 

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• Using automated tools for creating engagement with ads and ad impressions. 

• Clicks and impressions on the ads placed on their websites by the publisher itself. 

• Spamming websites using bots for the theft of information or any malicious activities. 

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How to find and eliminate Invalid Traffic (IVT)?

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1. Examine all the reports of where the traffic is coming from and then act accordingly. Using a third party tool, you can also know the IP address and domains of bots/IVT. 

2. If you are using paid traffic for your website, then you may get more IVT. So, compare your traffic with different paid media and track what comes with least IVT. 

3. Traffic coming from the data centre is often confused with the authentic audience, but it is not always true. For instance, a new pilot blacklist is made by Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) which displays all the data centre IP addresses. You can use this blacklist to segregate the non-human attacks. 

4. Your demand partner can help you solve this issue. So, as soon as you detect bot/IVT, talk to them. ​