I write a lot about the ongoing madness associated with fraudulent ad tech, along with the continued crazy investment in the medium by major brands, and the ad agencies who place those ad bets for them.

All manner of businesses are struggling to find sustainable ways to reduce operating cost. 

We all know that the cost of living crisis is far from over and after all there's only so much cost cutting you can do. 

So, how can you save jobs, trim the marketing budget, and keep the lights on?

As 'programmatic' ad tech finds it's way into the Smart TV world, the increase in ad fraud will continue to gather momentum along with the growth of those ad tech platforms. 

These are the winners of ad tech, they sit in the middle of all this madness without any real ownership or way to audit the level of fraud on behalf of clients by their agencies - until now!

With every bit of evidence telling brands we are sick and tired of the Tsunami of 'intrusive ads' why, oh why do brands persist in this strategy?

The most common forms of fraud involve invalid traffic (IVT). High-quality, data-rich traffic is what advertisers are paying for to make their campaigns a success. Fraudsters hope to mimic genuine traffic to earn money illegitimately. To make the traffic appear as authentic as possible, fraudsters often deploy several different tactics at once.

Click Fraud: 

Malicious bots or human-operated “click farms” generate money from advertisers who pay more for ad spaces with high click-through rates or pay on a per-click basis. They mimic this behavior to collect payment. Another form of click fraud is click injection, in which over-permissioned Android apps trigger a click before the installation of a new app is complete. The fraudster then receives credit for the install with any relevant campaigns.

Retargeting Fraud: 

Bots imitate the behavior of interested customers to attract higher retargeting eCPMs across apps participating in the fraud. Malicious code generates traffic when a smartphone is not even being used. This inactive application “shows” ads that will not be seen by users.

Maybe it's time for you to take a look at an alternative way?

Ask me how?