Holding Vendors Accountable – The Rising Threat of Digital Ad Fraud

You hear the terminology digital ad fraud and you get scared. And you should. Integral Ad Science estimates the programmatic industry’s standard fraud rate to be 8.7 percent. You want your advertising dollars to contribute to your ROI, not to bots and swindlers.

Digital fraud comes in many forms: invalid traffic, squatting, spoofing, scraping, malware, false reviews, and that next big thing fraudsters are likely concocting right this minute.

Narrowing the focus to digital advertising fraud, you’ll need to worry about click fraud, ad viewability, ad blocking, brand safety and more.

SA’s media team has been placing digital advertising since 2001, and we’ve witnessed many changes since then. Technology has helped us better target digital advertising while offering unique ad units and expanded reporting capabilities.

When considering digital advertising vendors and programmatic partners, are you asking the right questions? More important, are you getting answers or do you hear crickets?

Are they IAB members, are they IAB certified, have they heard of the Trustworthy Accountability Group? If not, what are they doing to combat fraud? Do they allow for third-party ad verification? My co-workers will attest to spending time with some really nice salespeople in the digital space who are unable to answer questions we consider to be basic.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of digital advertising partners, but how do you tell if they are reputable, or a good fit for a particular campaign? SA scrutinizes digital partners by asking about 30 questions and then reviewing the answers to see how transparent they are. Do we hold vendors accountable? You bet we do. Would you choose a homebuilder that doesn’t use a blueprint, or who doesn’t know the local building codes and standards?

It’s imperative to keep current on trends and technology. Our team does that by asking all the tough questions, by always being curious and by partnering with the best vendors. We do this because as the media world evolves, we must continue to provide effective advertising solutions for our clients.

In case you’re wondering, one of SA’s preferred digital ad partners can boast audited fraud levels of less than one percent.

What are your partners doing to combat fraud?