Ad fraud has become a cause of concern among today’s digital marketers, who are already struggling with decreasing attention spans and rapidly changing privacy policies. As per estimates by Juniper Research, ad fraud sets the marketing sector back by at least $51 million every day. It is not simply harming multinational companies, but also small businesses working hard to establish an online presence.
To help us get an accurate picture of the global problem of ad fraud and to understand the ways to fight the fraudsters and scammers, we got in touch with tech entrepreneur, digital marketing expert, and founder of multiple successful ventures, Faisal Abidi:
Multiple Fraud Tactics Need Multiple Solutions
“What digital marketing professionals need to understand about ad fraud is that criminals use a wide range of tactics to take a huge chunk from their marketing budget,” said Faisal. “The most common one, is of course, through bots that spawn fake links and site visits. The second one is through human click farms which fill up forms with random names and generate spammy app installs.”
According to Faisal, the best way to combat these types of ad fraud tactics is to have anti-fraud and anti-spam solutions that pinpoint anomalies, such as a large number of clicks generated from a region that’s notorious for its click farms. Secondly, using data analytics tools to detect suspicious traffic and blocking them can go a long way in ensuring that you do not become a victim of ad fraud.
Fraudsters Are Getting Smarter
“Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for new ways to commit ad fraud. A few of them also use sophisticated means to hijack clicks through pop-unders, click injections, and even hidden ads that might be tucked away close to yours to direct your audience to scammy websites,” commented Faisal. On that note, digital marketing professionals must always examine publishing platforms and assess their reputation before deciding to publish their ads on them. Prefer private ad exchanges and choose those that only let on-brand advertisements on their platforms.
At the end of the day, marketing professionals must work together to fight the menace of ad fraud because there is no one simple solution to getting it out of the way. Advertisers have presented a unified front earlier against it through many initiatives, such as verifying whether a seller is authorized or not for bid requests as well as having lists of verified resellers.
Given that the arena of digital ads is worth billions of dollars, it will continue to attract the attention of those who hope to make a quick buck. Therefore, marketers must walk the extra mile to continuously update their ad fraud prevention tactics to keep up with the times.
On this subject, Faisal’s views are apt, “Our fight against ad fraud is not a race, it’s a marathon. While we should celebrate our small wins against click farms, we must bear in mind that there are more criminals out there hunting for the right opportunity to steal from your ad budget. In such a scenario, remember to be vigilant, update your security measures as often as you can, and invest in the latest anti-fraud prevention tools.”
