What Is Viewbotting?

What Is Viewbotting?

What is viewbotting? Viewbotting is a type of ad fraud in which automated software, often referred to as view bots, artificially inflates the number of views on videos or livestreams. This creates the illusion of popularity, tricking platforms and advertisers into believing content has more real engagement than it does. While it might look harmless on the surface, viewbotting wastes ad dollars, distorts analytics, and undermines trust in digital advertising.

Read related blog: What are View Bots?

Why Viewbotting Hurts Advertisers

For advertisers, every view matters. When bots replace real visitors, campaigns lose their ability to generate genuine conversions. Fake views:

• Waste spend on impressions that never produce revenue.
• Skew engagement metrics like CTR and CPM, making performance reports unreliable.
• Undermine confidence in platforms, especially if ad buyers suspect inflated metrics are widespread.

Even a short-lived viewbotting campaign can drain budgets and lead marketers to make poor optimization decisions.

Common Types of Viewbotting

• Livestream inflation: bots run streams in bulk through scripts or headless browsers.
• Fake engagement: some bots add artificial chats, likes, or reactions to look more human.
• Malicious viewbotting: competitors may use bots to trigger account penalties or suspensions.

All of these create a false sense of popularity while delivering no real business value.

Is Viewbotting Illegal?

Viewbotting is a form of fraud, but it typically falls under violations of platform policies rather than criminal law. Platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok explicitly ban viewbotting and enforce penalties like suspensions, permanent bans, and revoked monetization. While not usually prosecuted in court, the consequences are real, especially for advertisers whose budgets are wasted on fake traffic.

How Can You Tell if Someone Is Viewbotting?

Detecting viewbotting can be difficult because bots are designed to look like real visitors. Warning signs often include:

• Sudden spikes in views without a proportional increase in comments, likes, or shares.
• Traffic coming from suspicious or irrelevant geographic regions.
• Inflated performance metrics that don’t align with actual conversions.

Platforms try to catch fraudulent traffic, but detection methods vary in effectiveness. This is why advertisers turn to Anura for reliable protection.

How Anura Stops Viewbotting

Anura detects viewbotting in real time using environmental analysis to identify anomalies that reveal invalid traffic. With 99.999% accuracy when marking a visitor as fraudulent, Anura ensures legitimate visitors are never blocked while fraudulent visitors are removed before they impact campaigns.

Advertisers also gain access to comprehensive, actionable analytics that pinpoint fraud sources, enabling smarter decisions and stronger ROI. And with integration flexibility and unparalleled customer service, Anura fits seamlessly into your workflows while providing hands-on support at every step.

Take Back Control of Your Campaigns

Don’t let fake views eat into your advertising budget. Learn how to identify and stop ad fraud, including viewbotting, before it damages your results. Download Anura’s Ultimate Guide to Ad Fraud to protect your campaigns with proven strategies.