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- 🧠Bot Beat #1: $30M in Ad Budget—Gone to Bots
🧠Bot Beat #1: $30M in Ad Budget—Gone to Bots
Real-world bot traffic horror stories and what to do about them
🧨 This Week’s Hit: Uber reportedly lost millions to fake installs
A 2020 report revealed Uber spent $100M+ on mobile ads, with over $30M going to fraud. Bots were faking app installs and post-install activity.
The kicker? Some of the "fraud" came from trusted ad partners who auto-optimized to bad traffic.
💡 Takeaway: Attribution fraud doesn’t need to be malicious to be expensive. If your funnel rewards installs > activity, bots will play the game better than humans.
🔬 Bot Detection Quick Tip
Use JA3 fingerprinting to detect headless browsers and bots pretending to be real users. Pair it with behavioral analysis (e.g., inconsistent mouse movement or tab switching).
Tools like DataDome, Human Security, and Fingerprint can help you monitor bot quality and legitimacy.
🛠Tool Spotlight: Fingerprint Pro
Best for: Identifying returning users across devices—even in incognito
Why it works: Uses dozens of entropy points (canvas, timezone, WebGL) to give each user a unique fingerprint
Affiliate available: ✅
👀 Coming Next Week
CAPTCHA fatigue: why it hurts UX and still doesn’t stop bots
How sneaker bots evolved into checkout scalping for electronics and tickets
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Forward to someone in growth, security, or performance marketing who deals with fake traffic.
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