Ad fraud is any revenue or attempted revue generated fraudulently from digital advertising. This revenue is usually illegally generated from fake clicks, phony installs, simulated in-app actions or falsely inflated impressions.

Ad fraud has become a hot topic as digital advertising increasingly dominates. Ad fraud can generally be categorized into two forms: desktop and mobile ad fraud. Desktop ad fraud is when illegal revenue is generated from desktop advertising campaigns, such as programmatic, native advertising, display, and CPC or impression campaigns. Some studies claim ad fraud is on the decline, while others say it's out of control. The truth is largely unknown, as there is complete disagreement over exactly what constitutes ad fraud and how it should be measured, compounded by the complex nature of digital advertising in general.

So what do we know? Well, until tools and analytics became more advanced, ad fraud was very common in the digital advertising space. Today, simple ad fraud can often be defeated with simple tools and analytics—though many companies haven't even created this simple level of protection for themselves. Many companies believe the problem has been eliminated because simple tools exist in most ad networks and agencies, and thus do little to protect themselves from more sophisticated scams.

Scammers take advantage of the fact that many companies don't understand ad fraud and can't easily see how it can drain their resources. You can aim to prevent ad fraud by working with a technology provider that can accurately detect automated bot traffic and identify fraudulent advertising behaviour, defining actions to be taken in the event of a fraud attack. However, working with a vendor that gives you an accurate view of all traffic to your web-facing infrastructure will give you a comprehensive understanding of what ordinary vs. anomalous traffic behaviour looks like, enabling the effective and efficient blocking of malicious activity present in online ad fraud.

Think of it this way: You want to advertise your clothing brand and know there's a billboard in a prominent place next to the stadium. You contact the company that owns this billboard and sign a contract to have your ad run there for two weeks. During those two weeks, you drove past a billboard and realized your ad wasn't there. You call the poster company to find out what's going on. They tell you that their records show that the subcontractor did the job and that your billboard is where it should be. You state that you have documentation that your ad is not in its stated position.They calmly tell you that they only work with particular third party companies that verify their work and their partners have not found a problem. Because of that, the billboard company refuses to give you a refund or look into the matter further.

You would probably never use that company again. But this happens in digital advertising all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to see when your ads are out of place online as it is with a giant billboard.

One might assume the problem is insurmountable. Not so.

The solution is simple, fast and affordable. At least with Protify, it is the case. Yes, I know this sounds super sales-y, however, these are facts.

‍The Different Types of Display Ad Fraud

There are a number of different types of ad fraud: Click fraud, impression fraud, redirect fraud, and more. A different scheme is then assigned to each type of ad fraud. These include cookie stuffing, pixel stuffing, click farms/device farms, ad stacking, domain spoofing, and more. This variety makes it difficult to keep up and understand exactly how your money is being stolen.

But they all have the same basic idea:  In many cases, the real business model behind the bots is hidden, making it difficult to anticipate their next move.  The methods used by botnets to control advertising traffic may change rapidly. For example, a simple click on an ad may mean different things today than it did just three months ago.

‍Tips to Prevent Ad Fraud

There are several ways to pinpoint problems in your campaign.

‍Manual

First, you can use the manual method. Check past campaign analytics to determine where you've been hit by fraud by looking for patterns that indicate bots, conversion rates that don't match traffic spikes, and unusual levels of fraudulent orders.

1. Check the analysis of abnormal patterns. People rarely create obvious repeating patterns in the data, such as B. Daily order spikes at 3:00 pm If you see such patterns, see what activity is driving the offending traffic as it may be driven by bots .

2. The best way to avoid ad fraud is to carefully review the bidding and targeting features of your advertising platforms. Set up custom reports for your campaign. Consider multiple factors such as overall traffic, conversion rates, and overall sales. Compare your best campaigns against chargebacks and fraudulent orders once a month to ensure no campaigns are overwhelmed with bad traffic.

3. You should also seek advice from cybersecurity professionals who can pinpoint when fake traffic is used.

‍Automated

If you don't have the time or resources to troubleshoot the problem manually, you can also use available technology. Try to only install and download plugins and apps from reputable sources. Check their other apps. Many malicious developers will make many unrelated simple apps or plugins. There are solutions that can score your traffic, help you spot scams using behavioral analytics, and sometimes even stop bots from engaging in campaigns altogether. With the right software, you can see when campaigns reach real customers, and even use other metrics to determine which campaigns are most successful in converting actual sales.

While ad fraud is a complicated topic that will continue to plague digital advertising, you don’t need to be a subject matter expert to protect your campaigns. There is truly no better test than a free trial. Protify, give you a bespoke ad fraud prevention experience to fit your needs.

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