Marketing Land: Tips to avoid programmatic ad fraud

Soo Jin Oh, Gamut’s Vice President of Client Strategy & Solutions, wrote a guest post on Marketing Land titled, "Avoid programmatic fraud with these strategic tips." The article featured data from Pixalate, and we're sharing some of the highlights here.

"Marketers face a dilemma when it comes to programmatic technology: embrace the benefits of scale, efficiency and targeting, and expose yourself to the fraud lurking in the background," wrote Soo Jin Oh, Gamut's VP of Client Strategy & Solutions, on Marketing Land. 

"Luckily, fraud can be consciously avoided and isn’t something you simply have to surrender to in a programmatic campaign. It all relies on campaign execution. After all, the campaigns that experience a large percentage of fraud are typically suffering from poor execution strategy.

"Although it may seem as though your anti-fraud choices are limited, marketers, in fact, have many. Savvy marketers use the tools at their disposal to limit their programmatic campaigns’ exposure to fraud. Specifically, they make the following smart strategy decisions that fuel both design and execution in anti-fraud initiatives."

The four simple steps everyone can take to avoid ad fraud:

1. "Rely on meaningful success metrics."

   • The article notes that click-through rate (CTR) is an easy metric to fake, and data from Pixalate shows that click fraud is a rampant, growing problem in programmatic.

2. "Penalize the perpetrators"

   • "Fraud has many catalysts, one of them being the crowded programmatic marketplace," the article reads. "As a marketer, managing your relationship with other players is critical." Pixalate's Seller Trust Indexes can help you understand who the most trustworthy partners are.

3. "Promote the tools"

   • "Good tools exist — it’s simply a matter of sifting through the marketplace and finding them," Soo Jin Oh wrote. "I suggest using third-party verification companies that are certified by the Media Rating Council."

4. "Maintain a universal blacklist"

   • "[F]raudsters are always changing their tactics, but they do leave fingerprints," the article says. "You can use these fingerprints to build a strong blacklist that should be refreshed and updated regularly."

Read the entire article in Marketing Land.

Sign up for our blog to stay updated with new stats, trends, and analysis on digital ad fraud.