Barometric launches a free tool to spot fraudulent web traffic

Attribution and ad-tracking platform Barometric has released a free tool so that web publishers can identify fraudulent traffic.

This is the first entry into traffic fraud monitoring for Barometric, a separately managed division of mobile ad network AdTheorent. The new tool, called Clean Score, was launched as a separate tool after invalid traffic filters were built into the platform to assist in the tracking of ad clicks and impressions.

Clean Score lets publishers identify invalid traffic, with the aim of generating more valid ad impressions. A study last year by cybersecurity firm White Ops and the Association of National Advertisers found that advertisers are losing more than $7 billion each year to traffic generated by malicious bots.

The tool categorizes invalid traffic by type — such as good and bad bots, data center traffic and non-human behavior — and it conducts a trend analysis over time. Any publisher who registers and validates their site, and adds the tracking code, gets a report that can be set as private or public.

Here is the public Invalid Traffic Report for Opposing Views, a news site:

If the causes of the invalid traffic are not obvious to the free tool user, there’s a paid subscription service with more detailed reports, plus the site publisher can contact Barometric for assistance. While the tool is focused on traffic to websites, a version for apps is planned for later this year.

In January, Colorado-based software firm Zvelo launched what it said was the first free bot detection service.

Barometric president Anthony Iacovone told me via email that his company can’t compare Clean Score with Zvelo because Zvelo’s exact approach is not known, and Barometric needs to keep its processes secret to avoid manipulation by invalid traffic sources.