Anura PR Team
With programmatic ad spend projected to hit $123 billion in 2022, fraudsters have a massive incentive to leverage technology in nefarious ways. And, their efforts are paying off—nearly 45 percent of all programmatic ad spend in the US was due to fraudulent traffic in 2019. That translates to losses in programmatic advertising of more than $50 billion in 2022 alone.
A major part of the problem is a general misunderstanding of fraud solutions in the realm of programmatic advertising. Many DSPs claim to use anti-fraud solutions, but the truth is most fraudulent traffic slips by undetected. Fraudsters are continually developing their tactics, making them appear as valid visitors to unsophisticated filters. Fortunately, there are solutions available. Here’s how you can prevent programmatic ad fraud from hurting your campaigns.
3 Ways to Prevent Programmatic Ad Fraud
Programmatic ad fraud is difficult to detect because of the tricks fraudsters employ to mimic the behavior of valid traffic. By implementing special code that can instruct devices to scroll, click, and view video just like a real person, fraudsters are able to operate without being caught. In order to catch this type of traffic, known as Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT), more advanced approaches are required.
One - Focus On SIVT
Most DSPs claim to prevent fraud by running pre-bid filters. However, these filters only catch GIVT such as data center and basic bot traffic. This is accomplished by collecting IP addresses and user agent info, which are only 2 data points. The result is that only around 1-3% of actual fraudulent traffic is prevented at the pre-bid stage. To catch the majority of programmatic ad fraud, you need a solution that can detect SIVT collecting hundreds of data points to determine fraud.
Two - Analyze Post-Impression Data
In order to accurately identify SIVT without generating false positives, it takes analysis of data. By the use of Javascript, it’s possible to collect hundreds of data points about post-impression traffic, which can then be analyzed to quickly identify sources of fraud. These sources can then be added to a list of SIVT offenders that can be removed from your campaigns, all while providing transparency for programmatic advertisers.
Three - Use A Solution With Human Interpretation
While the power of Javascript and machine learning is undeniable for finding fraud, it’s still hard to keep valid traffic from being blocked. Lowering the occurrence of false positives and increasing the accuracy of programmatic ad fraud detection still demands human interpretation. By tapping into the expertise of human data analysts, the patterns and nuances of SIVT can be discovered in less time and with higher fidelity.
Stop Programmatic Ad Fraud Today
Anura catches the real threat—sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT). This type of invalid traffic passes pre-bid filters with ease and enters the bidding pool undetected. To catch SIVT, Anura leverages the power of Javascript post-impression. This enables the use of analytics to create a list of SIVT sources. The traffic can then be prevented at the supply side partner (SSP) or domain level, quickly reducing fraud in a campaign and increasing performance.