By Mark Macias
Online advertising is typically the first approach for many tech startups and small business owners, but there is a big silent secret that is stealing a portion of your online ad budget. It involves Internet bots that are disguised as consumers and secretly clicking on your ads without you knowing.
Some exposes (like this story in Moz) have alleged the ad networks are working together with the ad agencies to essentially provide “fake” clicks on ads that generate revenue for the ad networks. Google has publicly come out against the bots, even issuing a report on what it was doing to prevent these “bots” from clicking on online ads.
Here’s a closer look at how Internet bots are stealing a portion of your online ad budget without you even realizing it.
