The Human Approach to Marketing in a Bot-Flooded World

At last monthamp8217s POSSIBLE Conference in Miami one of the more unsettling conversations wasn39t about streaming economics retail media or AIgenerated creative It was the reality check I got recording an episode of Insider Interviews with Jay Benach about whether brands can trust that the audiences they think they39re reaching online are even humanBenach GM Media Security at Human described a digital ecosystem where bots donamp8217t just inflate traffic numbers or trigger fake ad impressions Now they expertly shop scrape click compare prices fill carts and interact with websites in ways that mimic real consumer behavior That means influencing retargeting data just as marketers are pouring bigger investment into automated buying systems and AIdriven optimization And that means itamp8217s harder to distinguish between human and machine activity and judge outcomesViewability had been a bit of a contentious point so standards were introduced to solve a legitimate issue ads loading below the fold or appearing onscreen too briefly to be seen Now amp8220viewable doesnamp8217t necessarily mean humanamp8221 Benach said Just as standards evolved fraudulent actors adaptedBots have been programmed to scroll pages move cursors and create behavioral signals specifically designed to satisfy those measurements Technically the ad was amp8220seenamp8221 Just not by anyone a marketer actually wanted to reachFrom amp8220Bot or Notamp8221 to HumanHumanamp8217s own evolution reflects how the problem itself has changed Initially launched as amp8220Bot or Not LLCamp8221 later amp8220White Opsamp8221 it landed on amp8220Human Securityamp8221 because the mission expanded beyond just fraud detection The goal now is helping brands identify the real and right humans interacting with their business Or as Benach plainly pitched me amp8220quotDo you want to know if you39re being robbed If the answer is yes there is a solution to thatquotBenach came to the category through an unusual route running a video game ad network where certain publishers seemed able to generate suspiciously massive audiences almost overnight amp8220Something didnamp8217t make senseamp8221 he recalled Then meeting the founders of what was Bot or Not he was sold on their mission to determine with precision whether a browser session was being operated by an actual person or by automationAt the time even acknowledging widespread bot activity in advertising made many companies uncomfortable Today the conversation has become far more nuanced because automation itself is no longer automatically viewed as maliciousquotThe question is no longer 39Is this a bot39quot Benach said quotIt39s 39Who sent it and what does it want39quotThat shift reflects the reality of today39s internet Thereamp8217s a but about bots Not all are harmful Search indexing bots help organize the web Shopping comparison bots may act on behalf of real consumers researching products LLM crawlers continuously scrape websites so AI platforms can provide current answers and conversational experiences that feel timely and informedThe amp8220big butamp8221 is that malicious automation has become more sophisticated and more commercialized Benach described quotsniping botsquot that intentionally fill shopping carts to distort retargeting signals automated systems designed to drain competitors39 paid search budgets through repeated clicks and networks built specifically to manipulate campaign metrics The result Marketers are operating within a mix of humans AI agents useful automation and outright fraudInstead of simply blocking all automation brands have to try to understand which automated activity represents fraud which represents opportunity and how to optimize for both Benach refers to that as a new quotvertical learning curvequot for marketers as they adapt to increasingly machinemediated customer journeysquotHow do you serve the good and right botsquot he askedWhy Audience Quality Matters MoreThe irony is that automation itself is not inherently the problem One of the more interesting ideas Benach raised is that certain bots may eventually represent valuable intent signals A shopping assistant bot operating on behalf of a real consumer for example could indicate stronger purchase intent than many traditional forms of browsing behaviorIf impressions can be inflated clicks manipulated and engagement simulated audience quality suddenly becomes more valuable than audience volume alone That is contributing to renewed advertiser interest in premium transparent environments particularly within professionally produced streaming and video contentAcross the industry marketers are placing greater emphasis on contextual quality verified audiences attention metrics and brand safety rather than relying solely on raw reach In many ways the conversation resembles a broader recalibration around trustThe Next Advertising BattlegroundBenach is particularly bullish on advertising opportunities emerging inside LLMdriven environments Unlike banner ads or sponsored search results that consumers have largely trained themselves to ignore AIgenerated conversations create a more embedded and interactive form of engagement Recommendations appear within active dialogue often during moments of high intent and discoveryquotIf I can target my spend toward the highest level of intent and precision that39s incredibly valuablequot he saidIn that sense the next evolution of advertising may not simply be about better targeting It may involve understanding how brands communicate inside machinemediated conversations where AI agents increasingly shape discovery comparison and decisionmaking before a consumer ever reaches a websiteThis POV reframes one of marketing39s oldest assumptions that the audience is always human Increasingly the path between brands and consumers may include automated intermediaries gathering information filtering choices and influencing decisions long before a person ever sees the message directlyIf it wasnamp8217t enough to learn that your web visitors might be faux humans then check out my previousamp160 amp8220POVPossibleamp8221 conversations with amp8220the COOL companyamp8221 which might make you rethink your ad tech stack or with the VAB which might spur another look at your media plan Next just wait till you hear what Alembic has to sayThe good news All these companies are solving for todayamp8217s very modern media problemsPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNetamp8226

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The Human Approach to Marketing in a Bot-Flooded World

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E.B. Moss

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