Automated bot traffic impacts digital advertising and marketing metrics

A significant portion of internet traffic is now generated by automated bots, according to the Imperva Bad Bot Report. This surge in non-human activity has created challenges for digital marketing, as nearly 50% of web traffic is no longer driven by people. This trend leads to inflated engagement metrics, such as email open rates and ad impressions, which can result in wasted advertising budgets and corrupted data.

Invalid traffic is categorized into two main types: General Invalid Traffic (GIVT), which includes mostly benign automated activity like web scraping, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT), which involves engineered fraud designed to mimic human behavior. These bots can deceive automated bidding systems by providing fake signals.

Marketing experts from E-goi warn that companies relying on outdated 'spray and pray' strategies face declining returns on investment. With over 20% of email addresses becoming invalid annually and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) implementing stricter delivery controls, businesses are being urged to adopt more intelligent data cleaning and privacy-focused communication strategies to maintain relevance in 2026.