Six Ways Fake Traffic Destroys Analytics and Performance

Fake web traffic is a growing problem for businesses. Fake web traffic is a growing problem for businesses. In 2023, bots accounted for nearly 50% of all internet traffic, with bad bot activity rising to 32%, up from 30.2% in 2022, according to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report.

Fake traffic refers to any nonhuman or malicious activity, such as bots or click farms, that skews your website's metrics. This invalid traffic disrupts engagement data, giving a false picture of real visitor behavior.

Here are six ways fake traffic damages your data and performance.

Fake traffic refers to any nonhuman or malicious activity, such as bots or click farms, that skews your website's metrics. This invalid traffic disrupts engagement data, giving a false picture of real visitor behavior.

Here are six ways fake traffic damages your data and performance.

1. Skewed Conversion Rates

Fake page views from bots inflate your total traffic numbers, distorting conversion rate calculations for critical actions like demo requests or sign-ups. Nonhuman visitors dilute the accuracy of these metrics, making it harder to assess your marketing effectiveness.

Key metrics like bounce rates can also be affected. For instance, fake users may leave your site immediately or fail to navigate beyond the homepage. These interactions make it seem like your content or design isn’t engaging, even when it might be perfectly fine.

Without filtering out fake traffic, your metrics could be off by 20% or more, leaving you with unreliable data about website performance and market demand.

2. Poor Customer Experiences

Fake traffic creates real problems for customers. One common example is inventory hoarding, where bots fill carts but never complete purchases. This makes items appear out of stock, driving real customers away to competitors.

During the 2024 holiday season, bot activity surged significantly. On Black Friday alone, Cloudflare observed a fourfold increase in bot-related traffic, with 29% of all traffic on their network attributed to "Grinch Bots" targeting e-commerce sites.

This surge in fake traffic caused unnecessary frustration for real shoppers, who left sites when they couldn’t find available products.

3. Damaged SEO Rankings

Fake traffic can slow down your website by overloading servers, leading to slower page speeds or downtime. Google factors page speed into search rankings, so if your site is affected, it could lose visibility in search results.

Additionally, fake traffic interferes with A/B testing by corrupting your data. This can lead to poor decisions, such as introducing design changes that increase friction for real users or implementing irrelevant messaging.

4. Disrupted Marketing Workflows

Fake traffic pollutes your analytics and creates widespread disruption across your marketing processes.

• Remarketing lists get filled with invalid users, lowering campaign effectiveness.
• Fake users distort lookalike audiences, wasting ad budgets on traffic that will never convert.
• Bots submitting fake forms overload your CRM and marketing tools, resulting in email bounces that damage your sender reputation.

These issues compound over time, making it harder to connect with genuine customers and achieve your marketing objectives.

5. Lost Revenue Opportunity 

Fake traffic drains ad budgets. Our 2025 GCC Ad Fraud Report reveals that $311.95 million in ad spend is forecasted to be lost to invalid traffic (IVT) in the GCC alone.

Based on Nielsen's study showing an average Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 2.87:1, this translates to $895.16 million in lost revenue opportunities across the GCC in 2025 caused by targeting fake audiences.

What’s worse, fake traffic skews your campaign data, leading to poor decisions about future ad spend and audience targeting. Over time, this compounds the problem and further distances marketing teams from their goals.

6. Wasted Resources

The impact of fake traffic extends beyond money. Think about the time and energy spent analyzing and strategizing for underperforming channels. Add the frustration and mistrust this causes among teams, and the ripple effects can drain your entire go-to-market operation.

Protect Your Data and Maximize Funnel Efficiency with Tapper

Not all bots are malicious, but the harmful ones are evolving quickly. Advanced tools like generative AI have made bots more effective at bypassing traditional defenses.

Tapper is here to help. Our advanced ad fraud prevention solutions detect and block fake traffic before it damages your analytics, campaigns, or workflows.