Tackling ad fraud has the potential to generate greater cost savings than those made possible by new applications of AI. Marketers must do more to promote an ecosystem of transparency, even if it might mean a reckoning with the true value of their performance metrics. This is according to Grant Simmons, VP, Kochava Foundry. Kochava is a leading real-time data solutions company for omnichannel attribution and measurement.
“Fraud has long been considered an inevitability in digital advertising,” says Simmons. “However, backed by technology, the right expertise, and shared knowledge, advertisers can soon find reward in their pursuit to eradicate it. Ultimately, less fraud means less money spent on manipulated metrics, and a fairer playing field for all.”
Not all traffic is good traffic
Simmons: “Fraud comes in many different forms and tackling it isn’t an easy task. This, coupled with the fact that fraud can often make your performance numbers look favourable, means that quite often it slips down the priority list.”
“But long-term, the persistence of ad fraud will always mean more money is wasted on campaigns. The unfortunate reality of the market is that not everyone is invested in catching fraudulent traffic. In that sense, it’s not just those responsible for fraud who are at fault but also marketers fixated on reporting positive numbers.”
“Often, companies will assign a section of their annual budget to fraud, with many considering it ‘the price to pay’ when advertising at scale. This doesn’t have to be the case at all, and the more that people start to take fraud seriously, the more we’ll see valuable and actionable results.”
Tackling fraud head on
Simmons: “The good news is that there is hope on the horizon. Ad fraud can be tackled with the right expertise. First and foremost, companies need to understand the various forms that ad fraud can take.”
“Click fraud, for example, is when bots or other tools are used to produce false clicks on an ad. This can even be carried out by website owners in order to inflate the cost of advertising and bring in more revenue. Not to be confused with impression fraud which concerns the number of times an ad is seen.”
“SDK (software development kit) and event spoofing constitute a particularly pernicious form of digital ad fraud that undermines the integrity of the online advertising ecosystem.” continued Simmons.“ “This deceptive practice involves malicious actors utilizing software tools or code libraries to simulate user interactions and artificially inflate metrics such as impressions, clicks, or installs. By mimicking legitimate user behavior, perpetrators can fraudulently extract revenue from advertisers and publishers, resulting in significant financial losses and erosion of trust.”
“Other types of fraud include ad injection, which occurs when ads are inserted into pages on top of legitimate ads while the user is browsing and geo masking which may send false location data to trick advertisers into believing that their ads have had strong impact in their target markets.”
“Taking steps to tackle all of these different forms of fraud can seem resource intensive at first, but there are simple steps that can be taken that go a long way. For example, technologies such as fraud blocklisting can be used to quickly spot and stop fraud before it impacts campaigns. This means keeping a comprehensive list of fraudulent IP addresses or domains and monitoring for their presence before excluding it from your results. Kochava provides this capability natively within their platform.”
“Rigorous auditing, advanced machine learning algorithms, and stringent verification protocols are essential to safeguard the online advertising landscape and ensure fair compensation for legitimate activities.”
“Outside of the technical solutions available, more must be done to change the attitude that fraud is inevitable. By sharing knowledge, holding others accountable and demonstrating the benefits of strong prevention, the appetite for tackling fraud might soon rival the buzz around AI.”
What next?
Simmons: “As Rome wasn’t built in a day, ad fraud won’t be curtailed tomorrow. But with budgets tightened more than ever, failing to act will only exacerbate a growing problem. Assigning fraud to waste is effectively pencilling in a bigger loss next year.”
“Marketers have a role to play in promoting transparency, sharing knowledge and insisting on action from publishers. Industry wide change can lead to a more secure, transparent and profitable marketplace for all.”
Join Grant Simmons on Wednesday, June 4th at 10am PDT/6pm BST for the webinar Decloaking Ad Fraud: Expert Insights to Safeguard Your Ad Dollars. Register here for a deeper dive into the real-world crisis of advertising fraud, which continues to cost brands billions of dollars each year. This expert session provides a comprehensive exploration of the evolution of mobile ad fraud, current tactics and detection strategies, plus future challenges. Equip yourself with actionable best practices and AI-powered anti-fraud tools to safeguard your campaigns.
About Kochava
Kochava Inc. is a real-time data solutions company offering leading omnichannel measurement, multi-touch attribution, modern MMM, and campaign management for data-driven brands and platforms. We empower advertisers and publishers to measure what matters and achieve privacy-durable growth tailored to your unique KPIs. Kochava’s growth stack gives you control with a single source of truth across your omnichannel media mix and all connected devices.
With a culture of customer-driven innovation, dedication to data security, and the most powerful tools in the ecosystem, Kochava is trusted by top brands to harness their data for growth. Headquartered in the United States, the company has offices globally. For more information visit www.kochava.com. Follow Kochava on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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