Working Together to Prevent Ad Fraud

For publishers to be successful, they need to make sure their inventory is clean and fraud-free. The moment ad fraud compromises a publisher’s inventory, it puts every demand partner relationship at risk, while also increasing their risk of fraud. Of course, this also hurts publisher reputations. Trust is an inherent part of this puzzle, and without it, revenues decline, marketer campaigns are unsuccessful, and in some cases, even user privacy is at risk. Clean, protected marketplaces are a must.

As ad channels evolve, so does risk. With CTV as one of the hottest monetization opportunities, the risk of ad fraud is top of mind for CTV publishers. The CTV landscape is highly fragmented, which creates ample opportunity for fraud since regulations are slow to catch up. In some ways, it really is like the Wild West. Fraud is everywhere – it’s not limited to one ad format or another. CTV ad fraud is top of mind for everyone, since it has some of the highest instances of fraud, by nature of being new.

Of course, revenue risk is always top of mind. When a reputation is compromised, not only does demand diminish, but also the value of the inventory falls. In order for publishers to drive strong eCPMs, they need to ensure that their inventory is worthy of confidence. So, preventing fraud helps protect top-line revenue.

But bottom-line revenue is at risk with fraud, as well. Fighting fraud requires a ton of resources, including people, tech, time, and of course, money. Fixing fraud once it has compromised a platform is an uphill (and expensive) battle. This hurts the bottom line. That’s why preventing fraud before it happens is so important.

Protection services exist, but no one is perfect. How do we (publishers, platforms, advertisers, everyone) stop this fraud? I don’t know if a perfect solution exists, but collective action is the best possible protection for publishers.

Pre-bid vs. post-bid is also really important. Pre-bid fraud prevention helps stop fraud before it happens. A post-bid solution addresses fraud after it happens, like with blacklist. A mix of both is integral for maximizing protection and prevention. You want to be able to react quickly when something does go wrong, but stopping fraud before it happens is critical for protecting your reputation.

Looking for platforms that partner with MRC accredited fraud prevention services (like HUMAN) can also be helpful, as DSPs and demand partners are more likely to do business with MRC-accredited platforms.

Our vetting process for new publishers helps minimize risk for the advertisers, too. We check for publisher reputation and profile as well as performing pre- and post-bid traffic checks to make sure that the supply we bring on is as clean and protected as possible.

We rely on a special mix of brilliant people, strong partners, and technology to help provide a clean and protected marketplace for our publishers and advertisers alike. You can learn more about our protected marketplace here. At the end of the day, preventing fraud and mitigating risk is a full time job, and we are proud of the work we do to help keep publishers safe and to help marketers reach real audiences.

We’ve built our CTV/OTT platform differently, with features like dynamic ad breaks, bidding by pod and by slot, and bidding by auction type. Of course, we’re always looking out for ways to prevent ad fraud. That’s why at Smaato, we’re proud to offer in-house SSAI as part of our robust OTT/CTV platform. By bringing server-side ad insertion in house, we not only eliminate an additional vendor cost for our publishers, but also completely eliminate third party SSAI fraud, which is one of the biggest sources of CTV ad fraud.

We also partner with industry leaders like HUMAN, as there is safety in numbers. HUMAN offers collective protection by partnering with huge enterprises and platforms, which helps prevent fraud from even the most sophisticated automated bots.

Plus, we also allow publishers to share a ton of information in each bid request, including genre, series, session, and even episode information. We give publishers an opportunity to include as much information as possible in a bid request so that DSPs or advertisers can get better insight into exactly what they are buying. After all, wonky bid requests (and ones with missing information) are often flagged as fraud.

To learn more about the Smaato CTV/OTT platform, check out this free ebook.

We recently hosted a fireside chat with HUMAN, our partner and industry leader in ad fraud protection, and our own VP of Product, at Smaato’s beautiful office in the Empire State Building.

Our industry experts delved into omnichannel monetization solutions and how data, measurement, and the programmatic pipes ensure brand safety, transparency and a shift toward the future of programmatic advertising. We dove into how programmatic open market bidding can be a strategic tool for standardized ads slots and pods as a way to increase bid density and reduce overall operational overhead.