New research from DoubleVerify’s Fraud Lab highlights an 86 per cent year-over-year increase in general invalid traffic (GIVT) rates during the second half of 2024 – with the fourth quarter of 2024 marking the first time in history that monthly GIVT volumes exceeded 2 billion ad requests.
The rapid rise in GIVT is linked to the proliferation of AI-powered crawlers and scrapers designed to collect and analyse web content. While GIVT is not inherently malicious like sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT), industry standards and regulations offer some protection to advertisers against wasted ad spend from GIVT. However, the results can still negatively impact accurate measurement.
This means advertisers must now measure and avoid both GIVT and SIVT to improve campaign performance and maximise budget allocation.
The accelerated adoption of generative AI tools in recent years has led to a notable rise in AI-driven crawlers and scrapers. In fact, DV data shows that a record 16 per cent of GIVT from known-bot impressions in 2024 were generated by bots associated with AI scrapers, such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and AppleBot.
Key Findings from DoubleVerify’s Research:
- AI crawlers and scrapers have emerged as a leading contributor to GIVT, inflating traffic metrics across digital platforms.
- If left unchecked, GIVT can distort campaign metrics, inflate impression counts, and raise concerns about discrepancies.
- DV’s advanced AI-powered detection tools have been enhanced to mitigate this growing threat, ensuring advertiser investments are safeguarded.
Read the full report here.
Visit https://doubleverify.com
