ad fraud

Catching Their Ad Tech in Bed with Fake News, Marketers Ask Fraud Fighters for Help via AdAge

• Posted: December 5, 2016

 

Ad buyers are joining the fight against the “fake news” that many people blame for misinforming voters during the presidential campaign.

Although the focus initially fell on Facebook and Google, where made-up headlines became easy to find, pressure has also come to bear on lesser-known companies that provide the financial motivation for fake news.

Now ad-fraud fighters, usually hired to prevent scam artists from stealing ad budgets with fake traffic, are being asked to help brands avoid websites with real audiences but with fake stories.

“Brand safety” online has historically involved making sure ads don’t appear on pornographic or vulgar websites. That’s changed, as fake news sites have found themselves working with nearly every major player in ad tech.

“This is a new frontier in the fraud war and it came out of a weird place,” said Scott Meyer, CEO of Ghostery. “And it’s going to be a challenge for these companies for exactly that reason.”

Access full article from AdAge

Editor’s Note: From the AM Conference in June. Combat (Digital) Fraud to Drive ROI – Presented by Aaron Fetters, comScore, Inc.; Amaya Garbayo, Kellogg; and Jon Suarez-Davis, Krux

• Posted: August 10, 2016

IVT (Invalid Traffic Detection) includes hijacked devices, malware, bots, and misappropriated content – all forms of non-human traffic. Kellogg C-level suite executives asked what the company was doing to combat IVT fraud. In response, the firm worked with Krux and comScore to attack and reduce IVT (see deck). The process saved the company an estimated $2 million.

Among the key takeaways:

• More granular data can help advertisers minimize IVT
• Impression-level IVT suppression frees advertisers to buy cost-effective programmatic inventory
• Technology and data collaboration is critical to minimizing IVT

Access full presentation

Q&A with Jasper Snyder on Ad Blocking/Fraud – AM 2016

• Posted: July 19, 2016

We interviewed Jasper Snyder, EVP, Research & Innovation: Cross-Platform, from The ARF who provided his perspective on Ad Blocking/Fraud and the key takeaways from 8 of those AM sessions with industry leaders.

What were some of the highlights for you of all of the discussions and presentations on these areas?

There were lots! Ted McConnell (Rocket Fuel) was fascinating in how he talked about recognition of the problems here. He’d figured out that ad fraud, in terms of size, is basically the equivalent of there being 5,000 bank robberies per day. Ted also spoke about our mindset regarding fraud, making the point that we have to focus less on combating fraud per se than about combating its effects, namely by developing an immune system. “I don’t care how many fraudsters are out there, because if I can see them, discount them, and not pay them, they don’t matter,” Ted said. This is particularly important given how quickly the “bad guys” can react – if there were a solution outlined on the stage at AM, by the very next day the fraudsters would have figured out how to defeat it.

Download Q&A of all 8 AM presentations

Senators Urge FTC to Examine Ad Fraud – via WSJ

• Posted: July 19, 2016

As the buying and selling of digital advertising has grown more automated, the industry has grappled with various forms of fraud.

For example, scam artists have built networks of bogus websites, where they sell ads and use computer programs—or “bots”—to make it look as though these sites are regularly visited by humans. In other cases, fraudsters have used software to hijack people’s computers and direct web traffic to suspect sites loaded with ads.

Two senators noted that the ad industry has undertaken various efforts to stamp out fraud but questioned whether self-regulation will go far enough. “It remains to be seen whether voluntary, market-based oversight is sufficient to protect consumers and advertisers from digital advertising fraud,” the letter said.

Access full article from WSJ

Mobile Ad Fraud Outbreak is a Sign of Things to Come – via Business Insider

• Posted: July 19, 2016

Ad fraud on mobile devices has been less frequent than on desktop PCs, mainly because there is less money invested into mobile ads at this time, i.e. of the $60 billion spent on internet ads in the US in 2015, only $21 billion was spent on mobile, according to PwC. This lower levels of mobile ad spending translates into slimmer revenue opportunities for mobile ad fraudsters.

However, this will change in the coming years, as more money piles into mobile ads.

A corollary effect of malware and ad fraud is that it also encourages ad blocking adoption. Over 40% of consumers stated that they use ad blockers to protect themselves against malware and viruses, according to a recent survey by Optimal.com and Wells Fargo. Mobile ad-blocking usage is high and growing fast: over 419 million people worldwide according to a study by PageFair.

Access full article from Business Insider

STATISTA INFOGRAPHIC

• Posted: July 19, 2016

The ANA and White Ops have conducted studies on ad fraud. Who then should be responsible for combatting the bot army? Of the advertisers taking part in the survey, 17% see themselves as the responsible party, while 26% thought all stakeholders had a shared responsibility to fight the fakers, 21% held the Publishers most accountable and a plurality 36% said the Agency.

 

 

 

AD BLOCKING /AD FRAUD

• Posted: April 26, 2016

Conference Paper – “Combat Fraud to Drive ROI” – comScore/Krug/Kellogg

Fraudulent and non-human traffic creates serious issues for all sides of the online advertising industry. While the common strategy of blacklisting domains can help advertisers reduce wasted impressions, it blocks potentially valuable audiences – hurting the reputation, yield and CPMs of the publishers involved – and only partially solves the problem for the advertiser.

Understanding the pitfalls of common approaches, we developed an automated system to manage invalid traffic at the impression-level, improving delivery beyond domain- and site-level blacklisting.

We will be sharing learnings to help advertisers, agencies and publishers combat fraud, reduce waste and ultimately improve quality of effectiveness research in digital.

From MediaPost (Accenture) – “Global Consumer Awareness of Blockers Reaches Critical Mass”

Accenture has released a global research study of ad blocking among 28,000 consumers in 28 countries. Fully 61% of respondents were aware of ad blockers, and 42% said they would pay to remove ad interruptions.

Gavin Mann, Accenture’s global broadcast industry lead, said, “The industry needs to do everything possible to make ads less of an infringement on precious screen time, by building on early successes that deliver targeted, relevant and entertaining ads.”

A notable takeaway was not to make the mistake of putting the majority of effort into fighting ad blocking; it’s an impossible battle to win. The company recommends focusing on moving the entire ecosystem forward and making advertising less invasive and more personalized.

 

 

MRC Issues Ad Fraud Rules

• Posted: November 9, 2015

The Media Rating Council, the official arbiter of media ratings in the U.S., has issued new guidelines for digital media vendors and companies as a result of the growing concern over online advertising fraud.  These guidelines, which will address the detection and filtering of “invalid traffic” generated by bots and other non-human sources, are discussed in this Media Post article by Erik Sass.

The rules are presented in a document entitled, “Invalid Traffic (IVT) Detection and Filtration Guidelines, Version 1.0.”  Among the key points in the guidelines: the requirement for enhanced internal controls covering employee behavior policies, partner qualification processes, analysis of acquired or paid traffic, periodic risk assessments, and the correct procedure for challenging a decision to remove invalid traffic.

These rules apply to all measurement products that involve tagging, beacons, cookies, redirects, and other types of message tracking, and to various types of census tracking.

The Council expects all MRC-accredited organizations to comply with the new guidelines. Although the rules take effect immediately, accredited organizations have a grace period of 180 days to comply with them. All future applicants for accreditation will be evaluated for compliance with these rules.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

 

TAG Rolls Out ‘Approved’ List and Payment IDs to Fight Ad Fraud: Group Takes Aim at Fraudsters With Two-Step Verification Process

• Posted: November 9, 2015

TAG, the marketing industry’s Trustworthy Accountability Group announced a new anti-fraud initiative, “Verified by TAG,”  which consists of two components: a registry of “verified” companies, and a new payment-identification system. The goal of this initiative is to bring transparency to the digital ad ecosystem.

Companies in the digital ad supply chain can now apply to the TAG Registry to be verified by TAG as a trusted advertising party. Registered companies will receive a TAG-issued ID that will identify their ads to partners in the supply chain.

According to TAG’s CEO, Mike Zaneis, “This is a first-of-its kind program to create an evergreen market of buyers and sellers with lots of different channels.”

TAG is also introducing a payment-identification system.  The goal of this system is to create a record of who gets paid for every impression, and therefore, prevent criminals from receiving ad dollars by selling fake impressions on sites they list in ad exchanges.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

Tips to Reduce Click Fraud

• Posted: August 17, 2015

 The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that bots made up 36% of Internet traffic in 2014, which indicates that invalid clicks are wasting the ad budgets of many firms. Rich Kahn, writing for MarketingProfs, provides tips for avoiding click fraud and the related spending losses.

-Closely track campaign data in real time and investigate any unusual activity in traffic or other metrics.

-Accurate targeting to consumers based on location, behavior, and interests makes the message more visible to more consumers and fewer bots.

-Consider engaging a click fraud specialty firm to help establish what type of traffic is visiting the sites on which you advertise.

-Although no laws have yet been passed, click fraud issues and botnet theft have a high profile with legislatures.

This article suggests that these tips can help rescue marketing budgets from click fraud.

See all 5 Cups articles

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