What is Bot Filtering?
Bot filtering is the process of identifying and removing non-human traffic from your podcast analytics. This includes automated requests from search engine crawlers, app pre-fetching services, monitoring tools, and malicious bots—all of which would otherwise inflate your download counts with traffic that doesn't represent real listeners.
Bot filtering is a critical component of the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines, which require compliant platforms to filter invalid traffic before reporting metrics.
Types of Traffic That Get Filtered:
General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) Known non-human traffic that can be identified through routine filtration methods:
- Search Engine Crawlers: Googlebot, Bingbot, and other indexing spiders
- App Pre-fetching: Automatic downloads triggered by apps before users request them
- Data Center Traffic: Requests originating from known hosting/cloud providers rather than residential IPs
- Known Bot User Agents: Traffic matching the IAB/ABC International Spiders & Bots List
- Monitoring Services: Uptime monitors, feed validators, and health check services
Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) Harder-to-detect invalid traffic designed to appear human:
- Hijacked Devices: Malware-infected computers making requests without user knowledge
- Bot Networks: Coordinated fake traffic from distributed sources
- Falsified User Agents: Bots disguising themselves as legitimate podcast apps
- Residential Proxy Traffic: Bot traffic routed through residential IPs to appear legitimate
How Bot Detection Works:
- User Agent Analysis: Compare request headers against known bot signatures from the IAB/ABC list
- IP Reputation: Check IP addresses against databases of data centers, proxies, and known bad actors
- Behavioral Analysis: Identify patterns inconsistent with human listening (rapid sequential downloads, impossible geographic movement)
- Request Header Inspection: Look for missing or malformed headers that indicate automated requests
- Rate Limiting Analysis: Flag IPs making an unrealistic number of requests
Why It Matters
Bot filtering directly impacts the integrity of your podcast metrics and your ability to monetize:
Accurate Audience Measurement Without filtering, your unique listener counts could be inflated by 10-30% or more depending on your show's visibility. Bots don't listen to ads, don't become fans, and don't buy products—counting them misrepresents your true audience.
Advertiser Trust Sponsors paying on a CPM basis expect to reach real humans. Inflated numbers from bot traffic constitute fraud and damage trust in podcast advertising. IAB-compliant metrics give advertisers confidence they're paying for genuine impressions.
Platform Comparisons If you're comparing download numbers across hosting platforms, differences in bot filtering can make comparisons meaningless. A platform with lax filtering might show higher numbers than one with strict IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines compliance—but those extra "downloads" have no value.
Industry Credibility Podcast advertising's growth depends on trustworthy metrics. When platforms properly filter bots, the entire industry benefits from increased advertiser confidence and investment.
Avoiding Platform Penalties Some ad networks and sponsors audit download claims. Getting caught with inflated numbers from bot traffic can result in clawbacks, dropped sponsorships, or removal from ad marketplaces.
How to Use This in Dispatch
Dispatch automatically applies comprehensive bot filtering to all your analytics as part of our IAB 2.1 certification:
What We Filter:
- All user agents on the IAB/ABC International Spiders & Bots List (updated regularly)
- Known data center and cloud provider IP ranges
- Requests missing required headers or with malformed data
- Pre-fetch requests that don't result in actual playback
- Traffic patterns indicating automated access
What You See: Your Analytics dashboard shows only filtered, IAB-compliant metrics:
- Downloads: Bot traffic already removed
- Unique Listeners: Deduplicated and filtered
- Geographic Data: Based on verified listener locations
No Configuration Needed: Bot filtering runs automatically on every request. You don't need to enable it or adjust settings—your numbers are clean from day one.
Transparency: We follow the same filtering methodology that gets audited for IAB certification, so you can confidently share your numbers with sponsors knowing they meet industry standards.