Expert Opinion

brand-safety

Tackling Brand Safety in a Mobile-First Environment

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Safeguarding a brand’s reputation in the smartphone industry There’s no denying that millennials and genz of today prefer communicating via social media, texts, and email to talking on the phone. This is now becoming pervasive across users of all ages, especially in the COVID-19 era. Phones today are no longer just smartphones, but they encompass all facets of life for a user. This is the new era of smartphone usage where the device is moving past the only communication stage. Smartphone applications are at the forefront of today’s users. Even businesses have acknowledged the rise of creating user-friendly applications to attract users. Today’s smartphones come pre-loaded with applications for easy access for their consumers, which define a brand’s reputation among consumers apart from other features. With the application, usage comes commerce. From social media to eCommerce, from gaming to education, users are constantly hooked onto their smartphones 24X7, thus giving the brand a medium to increase their awareness via leveraging the increased app usage. There has been a significant rise in in-app advertising, which contributes a majority part of a brand’s marketing mix, thus increasing the complexity of online marketing. With increased smartphone penetration, the upcoming 5G ecosystem, smartphones of today are the preferred mode of media consumption which clearly states that mobile advertising is garnering a lion’s worth of share among digital marketers and brands of today. Reports have indicated that India will have about 829 million smartphone users by 2022, thus paving the way for brands to target a vast pool of consumers. Another study suggests that brands are now investing 45-55% of their digital advertising budget on mobile advertising, while it is stated to increase by 70% by 2022. Amid this rapid evolution of smartphone usage and changes in communication methodologies, brands are now marred with the complex challenge of creating effective mobile advertising strategies that resonate with the users and ensure that the advertisements are delivered in a brand-safe environment. This is a crucial aspect because smartphones are no longer adult-owned devices but are being used by people across age categories and kids alike. Online gaming, eCommerce, education, More often than not, the smartphone, although being a personal device to a user, is also used by kids and other family members in the house. Online gaming, eCommerce, and the web are not private spaces, and users can navigate freely across digital mediums. The openness and unregulated dynamics of these mediums have raised brand safety concerns in recent years, keeping in mind when and where a brand’s advertisement appears. Consumers (including kids) are at risk of being exposed to objectionable content such as pornography, terrorism, sexual exploitation of children, fake news, hate speech, and much more. Not just this, there has been an exponential growth in incidents of app spoofing, hidden ads, hijacked mobile devices, and account takeover issues (ATOs). Statistics suggest that children spend more hours on e-gaming platforms, which exposes them to two main risks- unregulated processing of personal data and unintentional serving of age-restricted ads (condoms, gambling, and much more). More often than not, specific mobile advertising strategies adopt gamification features that attract children. Upon clicking the ads, they’re then retargeted to websites with objectionable content, or such links are malicious adware that hijacks the device. Scammers lure them on the pretext of awarding game coins and rewards if they download a particular app on their phones, and then these devices are used by scammers to create more significant frauds. This puts the smartphone brand image in jeopardy, for no one knows how the app came in the first place or the occurrence of the advertisement. Exposure to violence is another threat that becomes a safety concern. The mobile ecosystem may or may not ever be brand-safe. However, it is imperative to take due precautions to prevent the brand image from being tainted and deploy the right tools to ensure a safe advertising environment. Get in touch to learn more about brand safety and brand reputation.

Tackling Brand Safety in a Mobile-First Environment Read More »

clickbait

Is Clickbait the Reason Behind Your Under-Performing Digital Marketing Campaigns?

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

One minute you’re deeply engrossed reading a dense political explainer on rumblings across the globe or simply scanning weather information for your weekend gateway. Before realization hits you, you’ve clicked on a headline that says, “Here’s how you can make $1000 every week”. Relatable? We’re sure it’s a relatable experience for every online user in today’s time. Such links are nothing but ‘clickbaits’, which attracts eyeballs and piques curiosity for a user with catchy headlines, often with defying logic, yet, such headlines still appeal to the user to click on them. Such links often contain misleading content or a pure waste of time, with the only aim to get more and more traffic. Apart from being the lowest form of journalism, marketing, and blogging, clickbait has become a pathway to digital fraud, impacting brands and marketers with skewed and untrustworthy data. But how is it affecting your digital marketing campaigns? Brands want to reach where consumers are; therefore, millions are spent on advertisements using Google, Facebook and Twitter, and other such platforms to place trigger-inducing ads. Companies leverage data to predict where the consumers are to place advertisements effectively. Now, is the data bogus or fraudulent? The information (read data) provided to you only contains fake clicks, non-existent traffic, or infected by bots? Brands that rely on third-party data providers to place their ads are rampant malpractices and fake data such as bots that mimic human behavior or device farms that create fake devices to generate -human-like- activity on non-existent devices. Such skewed metrics impact digital marketing campaigns, which drain resources on counterfeit users of zero value to brands. Welcome to the era of ‘Organized Marketing Crime.’ Clickbaits can range from a survey form to ‘spin-the-wheel of fortune game’, supposedly sponsored by a known brand. Sure, you’d like to try your luck if a reputed brand supports it. Oh, one can only imagine the repercussions! These links often contain malicious code which can harm your device, called ‘malvertising’. When clickbaits are in the form of a contest or survey, it asks the user for personal information such as credit card information, date of birth, etc., which fraudsters can then use to execute a financial theft or identity theft. From a brand safety perspective to skewing data metrics and ad fraud, the threats posed by clickbait is a matter of serious attention. How are you steering away from such issues? Do you have tools in place to protect yourself from such vulnerabilities? Talk to us; we may be the right team to help you achieve the most out of your marketing campaigns.

Is Clickbait the Reason Behind Your Under-Performing Digital Marketing Campaigns? Read More »

vanilla-brand-safety

How is ‘Vanilla’ Brand Safety Making Advertisers Inadvertently Anti-national?

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

The simple technique of blacklisting keywords to place ads on relevant and appropriate content is not a foolproof solution. Ask any advertiser, “How do you handle Brand Safety?” Most of them will answer that they configure keywords by blacklisting the ones that are inappropriate or do not resonate with their brand’s image and philosophy. It appears very simple to handle. In reality, it’s not that straight. Recently, a client of ours, a leading D2C player approached us for a Brand Safety audit, though it was very confident of its existing solution. To their surprise, our tool captured a very damaging find. This was not any simple Brand Safety issue! In this case, we found that the ads of this D2C brand were appearing on a channel that was promoting terrorism in India. There were loads of videos spreading venom and talking anti-national. For any brand, this is the worst of their nightmares. Being a home-grown brand there was an added layer of patriotism and the brand felt like a ‘party in the crime’. Advertisers relying on rudimentary checks around Brand Safety become easy victims of the loopholes which are exploited by such anti-national and hatred-spreading, propaganda channels. Such channels are widely available on UGC platforms like YouTube. Let’s explain a bit further how does the basic Brand Safety check that comes embedded with such platforms fails content. Any such platform allows one to configure a blacklist keyword list, which blocks or filters any such channel/content meta-tagged to such keywords. In the above example, keywords like ‘terrorism’, ‘terrorist’, ‘war’, and a few more similar ones were already configured to be blocked. But the channel on which the ads started appearing was using description and keywords in ‘Hinglish’ (which is writing a Hindi/Urdu word in English script). The filter configured did not see anything wrong with the channel content and considered it among one of the potentially high-engagement content for the advertiser. Hence started showing ads on this channel. mFilterIt’s superior Brand Safety solution, which has been precisely and specifically developed to manage Brand Safety, gets deeper than a keyword. It does a ‘scenario analysis’ where it senses the contextuality of the medium (channel) as well as the content (message) and only then allows the advertisement to be served, even if based on target parameters, the channel seems to be one of the most promising to find the audience. While the association with adult and porn content is an increasing concern for ‘socially responsible’ brands, the increasing instances of advertisements landing on terrorist and anti-national propaganda channels is a bigger concern. It is making an advertiser inadvertently fund anti-national propaganda against the nation. This will not be tolerated by any brand as it not only risks their reputation but also the entire business operations could be jeopardized, especially when the IT and other related laws are becoming more stringent to tackle anti-national sentiments, fake news, etc., all over the webspace.

How is ‘Vanilla’ Brand Safety Making Advertisers Inadvertently Anti-national? Read More »

mobile-app-install-fraud

How To Detect Mobile App Install Fraud?

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

The total number of smartphone users in the world stands at 3.8 billion which is half the population of the world. With the pandemic hitting countries across the globe, the mobile industry witnessed a wave of change, from increased mobile usage to exponential growth in app installs. Brands and marketers saw it as an opportunity to get more customers, therefore mobile advertising spending has been projected to reach $368 billion in 2022. The share of app install ad spending is expected to grow by 30% by 2022 which is almost a third of today’s mobile ad spend. Due to increased mobile usage, there also has been an exponential rise in mobile app downloads. Studies suggest that mobile app downloads rose from 204 billion in 2019 to an expected 258 billion downloads in 2022. However, the one aspect which hasn’t been given due consideration/analyzed is how mobile app fraud has also grown in tandem with mobile installs, especially in the Covid times. As more and more users install and engage with mobile applications, fraudsters are leveraging this wide playing field to steal ad spends and drive fraudulent conversions. A study recently pointed out that 21.3% of iOS apps and 26.9% of Android mobile app installs are fraudulent. Other statistics suggest that an overall $25.8 billion has been lost to mobile ad fraud out of which 42% accounts for app installs farms/SDK spoofing, 30% for click injection the remaining 27% to click spam. Clearly, the problem is huge. What is Mobile App Install Fraud? A mobile app install fraud occurs when fraudsters generate fake downloads and installs using automated tools to trick advertisers and users. There are a plethora of ways fraudsters leverage to receive significant payouts from advertisers and marketers on the pretext of fake installs while marketers unknowingly pay millions of dollars in ad spend for installs that are not even genuine. One such technique of mobile app fraud is click injection. Fraudsters create malicious apps which are then published on major app stores which when downloaded generates a fake click. The clicks appear to be originating from the website of the malicious publisher. These apps then detect when new applications are downloaded on the device and then inject clicks after the download is completed and before the app is installed. In such ways, fraudsters receive money for every click and install by stealing genuine clicks and receiving payments on their behalf. Another technique used by fraudsters is ‘Device Emulators’. These devices are capable of mirroring every aspect of the original device’s behavior. Such devices are used to download and install applications in high volumes which create an illusion of new devices and legitimate users. Detecting Mobile app install fraud No industry is immune to fraud, hence it’s unavoidable. But to begin with, having the right attribution vendor is imperative. Apart from that, one can also pay attention to the following techniques to analyze mobile app install fraud: Non-human in-app behavior, commonly known as post-install anomalies Hyper Engagement- Multiple clicks from a single source Click to Install time outliners: Understanding the click which was meant to drive the install, either it was too early or too late. Events time outliners- Odd events such as installations at 3 am IP anomalies- Different IP addresses of the impression and then click Device blacklisting – Any install that takes place on a blacklisted device Fraud is a cyclical element. Fraudsters are continuously developing technologies to cheat the ecosystem whereas tech companies are constantly evolving to find ways to stop these fraudsters. Shockingly, 22% of fake installs happen in the eCommerce industry followed by the finance industry with close to 21% of mobile app install fraud. An average rate of fake installs generates up to $3 for the fraudsters. The sky is no longer the limit for the bad guys out there. Are you now questioning the data given to you for the installs that took place in your campaigns? Do you now question the marketing budgets set out for an install campaign? Worry not, we got you covered! Get in touch with our experts who will safeguard your budgets and maximize your ROAS by filtering out the mobile app fraud elements.

How To Detect Mobile App Install Fraud? Read More »

reviews-on-ecommerce-portal

Importance of Genuine Reviews on E-commerce Portal

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

How it affects your brand’s ROI and safeguards Brand Reputation and Safety A recent study by Reprise which was conducted across Asia-Pacific highlights the shift in the pattern of a consumer when it comes to online shopping, especially during the pandemic. It suggests that the shift from offline shopping to online shopping is set to become a permanent change in retail consumption.   Covid19 has indeed accelerated online behavior in brands and consumers alike. The study reveals that the majority of the consumers look at online ads to discover new brands and products, while social media plays a key role in increasing the brand’s visibility. Not just this, product reviews top the list to influence a buyer’s decision. In India alone, 64% percent of online shoppers look at genuine customer reviews about a product before making a final decision. Product rating and consumer reviews add an extra layer of trust to secure the customer journey, thus enabling a customer to complete the checkout process. Why do reviews matter? UGC (User-generated Content) is a pool of valuable consumer insights. Brands can leverage these insights to improve, ideate, and innovate products and services for their consumers whereas reviews act as a bridge of loyalty between a consumer and a brand. Another study indicates that 92% of shoppers trust organic user-generated content over and above traditional advertising. This gives a brand an opportunity to increase brand credibility and also save time and money which otherwise are spent on other marketing channels. Consumers who are influencers enjoy reviewing products online for it allows them to gain social recognition, especially in today’s digitized era where eCommerce intelligence plays an important role and every individual wants to become the next go-to influencer. More often than not, brands also incentivize their genuine customers to share their reviews in exchange for a coupon or discount code. In short, people consume a plethora of content when they shop online and a brand has to establish its credibility among its buyers to scale its business, via genuine means. Fake reviews vs brand reputation vs Trust Research estimates that online reviews will influence $3.8 trillion of global-e-commerce spend in 2021 and the direct influence of fake online reviews on global online spending is $152 billion! Phew! Trust is the only factor that binds a brand and consumers together. While looking for a product, if consumers do not find a review or any bad review about a product, skepticism comes to play. That’s pure-play human psychology. Brands believe that by faking good reviews on the eCommerce pages they will attract consumers, they don’t realize the fact that today’s consumers are smart enough to differentiate between a verified review vis-à-vis the ones injected by bots. Using similar wordplay such as ‘excellent product’, ‘great product’, ‘worth buying’ and more such (fake) reviews injected by bots, it’s a clear indication to the customers that these are not-so-genuine reviews, thus customers end up alienating the brand and losing their trust in the brand FOREVER. This in turn hurts the brand reputation, credibility and ultimately affecting the ROI. Fake reviews are the final nail in the coffin for a brand. Once a shopper suspects the brand of having fake reviews, trust comes to question. In today’s era of eCommerce intelligence, it is of utmost importance that brands uphold consumer trust, provide them with adequate information and genuine reviews of their products which will ultimately translate into profit. And it’s not just a brand that may indulge in fake reviews, degrading content by competitors adds to the fake review menace to put the brand down. Automated submissions, bot programming, trolling activity, all such issues have infiltrated the e-commerce industry The Solution E-commerce is the viable channel for retailers in this new normal. Rising eCommerce transactions invite far potential fraudulent activities which affect the revenue and consumer trust. mScanIt e-com analytics tool by mfilterIt is packed with AI-driven technology which helps eliminate fake reviews and combat the scourge of fraud and deception. The tool leverages machine learning to identify fraudulent activities and protect the users and brand from fake reviews on eCommerce marketplaces. It is imperative to take necessary steps by investing in the right technology to minimize risks and ensure brand reputation to garner authentic users. Tools like mScanIt not only help to review the product page but also assist in the customer acquisition funnel and beyond! It’s to act now. Get in touch with us to understand the eCommerce intelligence solution and how can we ensure your brand’s safety and credibility and establish trust among your customers.

Importance of Genuine Reviews on E-commerce Portal Read More »

click-fraud-plaguing

Click Fraud Plaguing the BFSI Sector

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

sources are generated by bots, automated click, or some type of click fraud? Ad Fraud is estimated to cost advertisers and brands an estimated of $44 billion to fraudulent activities by 2022. Studies also indicate that each year $1.5 billion is lost to affiliate marketing fraud. Imagine the plight when the ad spends which was allocated to acquire new users and expand reach is now being cannibalized by nefarious affiliates! mFilterIt analyzed affiliate installs in the banking sector towards the beginning of the 2nd quarter of this fiscal year. The result brought to light a very pertinent challenge that is plaguing the digital landscape. Click Spam, Fake Attribution are all instances of Click Fraud, and they contribute to 74% of fraud. IMPACT OF AFFILIATE FRAUD Drained ad budgets Skewed cost per conversions Brand reputation damage Abandonment by successful affiliates Signs of Click Fraud Unusual peak in number of clicks Clicks beyond targeted location Anomalies in performance data Spike in search cost How Can You Stop Click Fraud? Invest in the RIGHT Ad Fraud Detection Software Deep dive into the analytics Target only high-value sites Book a trial with us to safeguard your ad spends that maximize ROI and ensure safety for your ads and brands!

Click Fraud Plaguing the BFSI Sector Read More »

affiliate-fraud

Affiliate Fraud: A Menace in Banking Sector

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Time to protect your affiliate campaigns and catch hold fraudulent IP addresses The digital market has given birth to a plethora of affiliates who’re found across markets and industries of today. Proliferation of internet and rise of digital mediums have injected a new life in the affiliate marketing space by making it far effective than any other marketing strategy. These affiliates have a well-established visitor base which provides partnership opportunities for brands to enter new markets and explore customer base, thus giving your brand a stronger online presence. The most important aspect of engaging in affiliate campaign is that the outcome is completely performance based. The affiliates are paid a commission only when a desired action takes place thus these affiliates are motivated enough to drive the outcome (through any means) your brand is looking for. However, an increase in ad spend by companies have made affiliate marketing an attractive playground for fraudsters who’re eating away your budgets through affiliate fraud. mFilterIt detected that 38% of the affiliate campaigns in the banking sector are affected by affiliate ad campaign fraud. The How Where there’s money, there’s fraud. And with fraud, honest merchants and marketers are losing revenue and are left with drained ad budgets whereas dishonest affiliates are sending nothing but fake traffic your way, that’s affiliate fraud. After analyzing a million of data sets in the banking sector in affiliate campaign, it was observed that there has been an increase in website traffic and leads however the sales remained as is. Why? Dishonest affiliates had been sending traffic from bots, automated scripts and malware which means that the spike in website traffic was not because of a real user but bots messing up the numbers while your affiliates earns for every lead/click/install. Not just that, it was also seen that fraudulent traffic was generated by a common IP address. At mFilterIt, we have internalized certain criteria to evaluate the legitimacy of an IP address and determine if it’s safe or compromised. We undertake live IP blocklisting to weed out fraudsters to prevent affiliate fraud in your campaigns and red flag the anomalies to safeguard your spends.

Affiliate Fraud: A Menace in Banking Sector Read More »

mobile-app-fraud

This Is All You Need to Know about Mobile App Fraud

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Mobile app fraud to remain a key security concern in 2021 We’ve come a long way from the onset of the Internet in the nation. From desktops to laptops, from telephones to smartphones, from LANs to mobile internet, from browsers to applications, we’re on the cusp of the digital revolution. Long gone are days of internet activities done on computers, thanks to the smartphone revolution, the majority of people now use a mobile device to browse the internet. To make consumer’s life easy, brands are now revolutionizing the digital game by converting and acquiring a new user base by providing them with a seamless experience on their hands via mobile applications. This switch in trend has also triggered a major challenge- smartphones have now become a breeding ground for scammers to defraud marketers, brands, and customers alike. With the onset of the pandemic, people have moved online and fraudulent transactions on smartphone apps have gone four-fold in recent years What is mobile app fraud? A fraudulent or a fake app are those applications that are created by fraudsters that mimic legitimate apps available on the Play store. The aim of these fraudsters is to mislead people about the actual app and trigger them to download these fake applications. Although most fraudulent applications are downloaded from third-party sources most of them also land on authentic Play Stores. These fake apps are responsible for injecting malware into your phones which can damage not only the operating system but can also compromise your privacy; passwords, photos, credit card information, identity, etc., in short stealing your data. As much it is important for users to protect themselves from these malicious threats, imagine the risk a brand has with respect to its reputation? A brand’s reputation is important to a brand’s success. Therefore, it is imperative for businesses of all kinds to monitor these fake apps and third-party sources for malicious apps and should be reported using the right tool. Such instances hamper your brand’s safety and reputation even if you have no relation to these applications. Mobile app fraud affecting your marketing funnel The Rise in digital advertising budgets owing to digitization requires marketers to remain vigilant of mobile app fraud issues which can hamper their efforts. Since fraudsters aim at claiming the advertising revenue, by generating fake installs these bad actors are defrauding all the stakeholders along the advertising chain. These fake installs misrepresent the data, therefore, affecting your marketing efforts. In most cases, skewed campaign results leave marketers wondering where they went wrong with their install campaign. Professional tools help you protect from such vulnerabilities and help better your marketing efforts thus ensuring better, bigger, and safer campaigns. Get in touch with us to ensure your campaign’s integrity.

This Is All You Need to Know about Mobile App Fraud Read More »

page-analysis

Why Do You Need a Perfect Page Analysis for your Ecommerce Product Page?

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Avoid cart abandonment issues with mScanIt e-commerce competitive intelligence solutions. Covid19 has caused a major shift in shopping patterns – over 65% of people now prefer online shopping over a traditional brick-and-mortar store. With this shift in trends and preferences, it has become more important than ever to cater to your customers in a way that will lead to sales in an online environment. Sadly, brands and retailers are clouded by a plethora of assumptions about how their consumers shop for the products. There’s only a little (negligible) attention paid to the shopping experience, placement, product details, and many other elements which account for sales. This becomes a major concern for brands and retailers who face cart abandonment issues. An average cart abandonment rate for online retailers goes as high as 80%. One can only imagine the potential revenue loss faced by the platforms, sellers, and loss of trust for the brand from the consumers’ perspective. Cart abandonment not only means lower revenue but accounts for increased acquisition costs. Imagine walking into a physical store. You simply find your way to the product that you require, read the description, hold the package in your hand to understand the look and feel, and finally end up buying the product. Now, with a shift in shopping patterns, it is imperative to replicate the offline experience in an online environment. That’s where the concept of a perfect page analysis comes into the picture. Your product page on the e-commerce site has about 10 seconds to capture the attention of its potential buyer. And that can only happen (also to avoid cart abandonment issues) when you have a perfect page that appeals to the user. What is a Perfect Page Analysis? A perfect page analysis helps better the product experience in an online environment that directly helps boost sales, enhance product viewability, and increase product ranking, thus building a strong brand. Parameters of a Perfect Product Page The Mscanit eCommerce competitive intelligence tool helps you benchmark your product page on any eCommerce website across various parameters: 1. Perfect product description (number of words) Long gone are days of lengthy crafty descriptions. Studies indicate that page visitors read about 15-20% of the text on any page. Users simply scan for key information. The tool ranks the product description basis the words, context, and word count. 2.Desired number of product images and videos It becomes difficult to assess the product quality, size, content written on the product, and many other such information which can otherwise be easily understood in an offline store. mScanIt helps in assessing the desired number of images and videos you need to compensate for the physical feel of the product thus giving the customer better clarity and information about the product. 3. Placement of the content (‘The fold’) With the proliferation of different shapes and sizes of devices such as laptops, mobiles, desktops, etc, it is important to understand the placement of the texts on your product page. This is because the required product information shouldn’t flow down to the bottom of the page as the user scrolls down. The tool ranks your page in terms of content placement which contributes to the user shopping experience. 4. SEO friendly keywords Having SEO-friendly keywords is the nervous system of your product page. We can’t emphasize enough the SEO aspect to get that perfect page for your business. The tool ranks your page basis the keywords used in context to the product displayed thus giving a fair idea to where the page stands. The tool not only ranks the above-mentioned parameters for the product you cater to as a brand but also helps you assess your competitor’s ranking. All this information when compiled together, helps brands make data-driven decisions to succeed on e-commerce platforms and also aid in cart abandonment problems. Having the perfect page is the DNA of your e-commerce business. Book a trial with us today to get your perfect page analysis done.

Why Do You Need a Perfect Page Analysis for your Ecommerce Product Page? Read More »

ad-fraud

How Do Publishers Stand to Lose on Account of Ad Fraud?

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

A study recently talked about how brands and marketers are losing money to ad fraud with estimates reaching as high as $100 billion by 2023. And it’s not just the advertisers who’re losing revenue due to such fraudulent activities. Publishers stand to lose a lot more when web fraud divert ad spends from high-quality websites to fraudulent ones. The loss of revenue coupled with losing trust in the publisher affects the entire ad campaign tactics for all the stakeholders in the ad ecosystem. Today, even quality sites face a threat to ad fraud given the rise in sophisticated forms of tools and technologies deployed by fraudsters to deplete ad budgets and divert traffic. A publisher offers readers and an audience for advertisers which in turn helps brands to get the user’s attention. More the attention and readers a publisher can garner, the more the advertisers are willing to pay for the inventory. It is commonly understood that ad fraud, in principle, only hurts an advertiser. What is not noted is that publishers’ business depends on the trust of these advertisers. These fraudsters take advantage of the digital ecosystem’s complexities to channel ad spends onto fake sites which should otherwise be going to legitimate publishers. A rise in programmatic buying has further exacerbated the problem of ad fraud. Real-time bidding on ads where an ad is shown as soon as the website is loaded gives fraudsters a quick gateway to enter the funnel to commit fraud. There are a plethora of sites to choose from for media buyers when they’re bidding on ads programmatically. Media buyers are spoilt with choices to choose from as long as they know that the site offers premium inventory in terms of human audiences. What they’re not aware of is that the fraudsters have infiltrated the ecosystem with an army of fake bots and fake websites and offering it up as a premium inventory. During the bid, these fake websites rank at the top with a large (fake) audience base and at a much cheaper price vis-à-vis a legitimate publisher who’s offering real audiences. These situations are forcing honest publishers to lower their inventory price in order to compete with fraudsters which in turn deflate the entire market. In short, advertisers are losing revenue on account of ad fraud (with the deflated value of ad inventory) and the pervasive issue of ad fraud is causing publishers to lose the only thing which makes them profit in the first place, margin compression. Desperate times, desperate measures! Due to loss in revenue and compressed margins, the publisher now opens its inventory to various exchanges. What happens here is that by listing on these exchanges they’re now prone to ‘domain spoofing’. Fake websites can now come up and pretend to be legitimate domains of these good publishers. Now when fraud detection tools detect high fraudulent activities on the domain which belongs to the fake publishers, the reputation of a legitimate publisher goes for a toss because the report states that the same domain had appeared in the placement report. This now gives the buyers a perspective that the reputed publisher deals in invalid traffic and fraudulent activities to pocket ad spends. But, is that the truth? In another instance, opening up for programmatic ads for ad slots on the page, publishers do not really know in advance the kind of ads which will be served in the slots. Taking advantage of the window here, criminals place ads with malicious code onto the reputed publishers’ site in order to compromise the user’s device. Although it’s not a publisher’s fault or a crime that the honest publisher committed, the user is tricked into believing that a legitimate publisher has caused them harm. While advertisers are fighting against fraud by using bot detection tools and other ad fraud prevention tools, publishers need to fight against fraud by proving to the advertisers that they have real and genuine human engagement. Ad Fraud detection & prevention is not restricted to removing bad traffic alone, it improves performance for the advertiser and in turn, the publisher gets to maintain their share of earnings. Publishers today need to work with fraud detection companies to showcase that their traffic comes from real human users. The entire ad ecosystem needs to be saved from the issue of such fraudulent activity where every stakeholder in the entire funnel is hanging by a thread of ad fraud!

How Do Publishers Stand to Lose on Account of Ad Fraud? Read More »

Scroll to Top