How Bots Are Stealing Your Digital Marketing Budget with Rich Kahn

In this episode of Talk Commerce, Rich Kahn, CEO and founder of Anura.io, discusses the pervasive issue of bot fraud in digital marketing. He explains how bots can significantly impact advertising budgets by generating fraudulent traffic, leading to wasted resources. Rich elaborates on the mechanics of ad fraud, the distinction between good and bad bots, and the operations of bot farms. He also shares innovative solutions to combat bot fraud, emphasizing the importance of understanding and mitigating these threats, especially as businesses prepare for high-traffic events like Black Friday. Takeaways Rich Kahn is the CEO and co-founder of Anura.io. Anura uses EOS to improve productivity and reduce meetings. Bots can steal significant amounts of advertising budgets. 20-25% of traffic can be fraudulent, impacting conversions. Google Ads can inadvertently lead to fraud through partner networks. Good bots identify themselves, while bad bots mimic real users. Bot farms operate globally to execute click fraud. CAPTCHA systems are outdated and easily bypassed by bots. Anura analyzes over 800 data points to identify real users. Businesses can get a free trial to assess their fraud risk. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Rich Kahn and Anura 02:25 Understanding the Bot Business and Digital Fraud 05:18 The Impact of Bots on Digital Marketing 08:33 Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Bots 11:09 The Mechanics of Bot Farms 13:19 Innovative Solutions to Combat Bot Fraud 14:56 Preparing for Black Friday: Implementing Fraud Solutions 15:36 Closing Thoughts and Free Trial Offer