So, a couple of weeks ago I promised you an updated bot detection script, based on the research that I did into 2017’s bot population.

And here it is!

Features Of This Script

  • Gives you an accurate read on the percentage of common bot traffic clicking your ad links.
  • Effectively zero impact on page load time, meaning you can use it on all campaigns.
  • High accuracy at detecting CURL-based or non-Javascript bots.
  • Won’t trigger false negatives from bots which look for URLs in the page.

What You Need To Use This Script

  • A campaign running on any traffic source that uses a landing page.
  • An external tracker like Voluum or Funnel Flux – basically, any campaign tracking tool.

That’s it! This script won’t work for direct-linked campaigns (at least not without doing something most offer owners won’t like – see “Using This With Direct Linking”, below), but you can use it on any landing page.

How To Use The Script

Step 1

Add an extra offer to your campaign, named “Parses Javascript”. That offer should link to a fast-loading page somewhere on the Internet – I used Google.com. It really doesn’t matter where you’re linking to, all that matters is that your tracker can detect a clickthrough to that offer.

FunnelFlux:

If you’re using a flow-based tracker like FunnelFlux, add that offer as a branch from your landing page, as if you were going to add a second CTA to the page.

Copy the Action URL for that offer, as if you were going to paste it into a landing page.

Voluum:

Copy your Multi-Offer Click URL as if you were going to add it to a landing page. You may also need to modify your landing page to use the Multi-Offer Click URL for your actual offer.

Other Trackers

Copy the URL you’d use to send people to the new offer in your campaign if you were adding a second CTA to the lander.

Step 2

Paste the Action URL / Multi-Offer Click URL for your new offer into a text editor.

Split it into two ...

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