#programmaticfraud

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CTV Ad Fraud Uncovered: Key Threats and Strategies for Smarter Ad Investments 

As Connected TV (CTV) advertising grows, criminals find newer ways to exploit its vulnerabilities. CTV ad fraud is now a massive, blown-up issue for advertisers, which ultimately results in wastage of ad spend and misleading performance metrics for the advertising campaigns. Unlike digital advertising, there's no industry-wide standardization in CTV, which offers the perfect playground for fraudsters. 

In this blog will focus on CTV ad fraud, important concerns such as frequency capping breach, threats to brand safety, and issues with viewable impressions, as well as how these affect advertisers. We'll also discuss strategic approaches for preventing fraud to maximize successful ad placements on CTV platforms. 

What are the Issues Concerned with CTV Ad Fraud? 

Violation of Frequency Capping 

Violation of Frequency capping when fraudsters manipulate CTV inventory to serve excessive impressions beyond limits. They loop ads in non-viewable environments, inflate impressions by spoofing device IDs, and reset ad requests to bypass restrictions. This practice drains ad budgets, distort camp 

Brand Safety Concerns 

Brand safety is a major consideration for advertisers: that a brand's ads will only run in suitable environments. CTV fraud threatens brands in varied ways: 

Fake Inventory- Scammers shower ad space on premium quality CTV apps but send them to low-quality or unsuitable content. 

Domain Spoofing- Scammers impersonate authoritative publishers to convince advertisers into buying fake impressions. 

Lack of Transparency- Most CTV ads are placed programmatically which creates more challenges to track the actual place where an ad runs. 

Viewability Issues 

Viewability becomes significant in determining whether an ad is looked at by users. Fraud essentially dilutes the real ad engagements by: 

Ad Stacking- Ads stacked on each other; just the uppermost ad is displayed on the screen. 

Pixel Stuffing- Ads are technically "served" in one-pixel size but never made visible. 

Misleading Reporting- Ad fraudsters forge logs to simulate high engagement. 

Impact of these Issues on CTV Ad Fraud 

The existence of CTV ad fraud has drastic implications for publishers, advertisers, and the ad ecosystem as a whole: 

Wasted Ad Spend – Brands invest huge budgets on fake impressions rather than real user interaction. This translates to lost marketing dollars that can be used on legitimate ad placements and performance-based campaigns. 

Manipulated Campaign Metrics – Deceptive behaviour tricks advertisers into thinking their adverts are doing great, distorting essential performance measures (KPIs) like click-through rates (CTR) and conversions. This may cause uninformed decisions in subsequent marketing strategies. 

Erosion of Trust in CTV Advertisements – If not managed, CTV fraud can demotivate advertisers from spending money on the platform. Brands would shift their ad budgets to other digital ad media that offer superior transparency and accountability. 

Poor ROI and Lower Conversions – Despite the high impression volume, fraudulent traffic does not contribute to actual conversions, which can affect revenue. Brands can have decreasing engagement levels, lower customer acquisition, and lower lifetime value from fraud-infected campaigns. 

Damage to Reputation for Publishers – Publishers and sites that unwittingly host fraudulent behavior can suffer damage to their reputations, and this can cause a loss of advertiser partnerships and revenue. 

Impact on Reach Vs Impressions – Due to frequency capping, ads may generate high impression counts but fail to reach new and relevant audiences. Instead, the same users see repetitive ads, leading to overexposure, ad fatigue and frustration. This stagnation can reduce engagement, harm brand perception, and ultimately diminish the effectiveness of ad campaigns. 

Strategies to Combat CTV Ad Fraud 

Fighting CTV ad fraud means employing a multi-pronged proactive approach. Advertisers must employ sturdy solutions to validate their campaigns. Here are some important techniques: 

Leverage CTV-Specific Ad Fraud Detection Tools 

Deploy a solution like Ad Fraud Detection by mFilterIt for detecting and blocking the fraudulent traffic. 

Use machine learning-based detection techniques to spot anomalies and flag suspicious activities. 

Employ ad verification tools to ensure the ads will reach the desired audience in brand-safe environments. 

Regular Monitoring of Campaign Metrics 

Monitor in real-time the ad performances and analyze patterns of engagements. 

Detect odd spikes in impressions, click-throughs, and conversions that may indicate fraudulent behavior. 

Cross-validate the data from various demand-side platforms (DSPs) to spot any anomalies. 

Conclusion 

CTV ad fraud is becoming one of the most notable threats to advertisers, with frequency capping violations, brand safety threats, and viewability issues being some of the prominent ones. Its impacts can extend beyond wasted ad spend; it distorts performance metrics, undermines trustworthiness, and lessens the return on investment 

To fight CTV ad fraud effectively, advertisers must install sophisticated detection technologies, ensure transparency in ad placement, closely follow campaigns, and leverage first-party data for targeting. Brands can defend their ad spend and ensure their CTV campaigns yield tangible results if they take a proactive approach and invest in fraud prevention solutions such as Valid8 from mFilterIt. 

As CTV advertising continues to evolve, staying one step ahead of scammers is paramount to drive digital ad campaign performance. In addition to upping the ante on campaign effectiveness, investment in brand safety and anti-fraud initiatives would enhance both safety and trust in the advertising ecosystem. 

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Ai in Programmatic Advertising Fraud Detection to Deliver Performance and Sustainability

The rise of programmatic advertising has shifted the focus towards accuracy and automation. It surged from $9.75 billion in 2023 to $12.46 billion in 2024, an annual growth rate of 27.8% and is expected to continue expanding, reaching $28.12 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.6%. However, with AI coming into the picture, performance programmatic platforms are prone to ad fraud even more. The need for optimization of programmatic media buying with comprehensive ad fraud solution  across the advertising funnel is the necessity to yield results.  

More and more advertisers are pushing for a stronger and harder success KPI in programmatic campaigns. The shift from visibility only to performance-first is underway. With new and upcoming programmatic platforms selling inventory on impressions, it is today evident that impression fraud is 10-15% of campaign spends in the MENA region, as per mFilterIt reports. There is a ROI uplift of 7-10% when advertisers identify and block for Made-For-Ad sites and Ad Frequency cap violations. 

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How Lead Punching Fills Your CRM with Junk Leads—and What You Can Do About It

Lead punching is one of the fraudulent practices used by dishonest publishers or affiliates to deliberately submit false lead information, using real names, phone numbers and email ID of a person. This information is easily accessible across multiple sources at a minimal cost, which makes it easy for fraudsters to exploit. They use this data to fill out lead forms, ensuring the details appear legitimate.  

However, in reality the real person is not aware of filling in the lead form or even having interest in the service. Therefore, when the sales team follows up, these supposed leads deny submitting any form or even knowing about the company.   

This forms easily 30-40% of the total leads which a typical client receives. So not only is the advertiser losing media budget by paying for these junk leads, but they also end up burning call center costs in calling up these leads. Marketing teams also add these leads into a CRM and do Email / WhatsApp marketing on these. Now they waste further money in reaching people who have no interest in their products. 

to read more visit: How Lead Punching Fills Your CRM

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Ai in Programmatic Advertising Fraud Detection to Deliver Performance and Sustainability

The rise of programmatic advertising has shifted the focus towards accuracy and automation. It surged from $9.75 billion in 2023 to $12.46 billion in 2024, an annual growth rate of 27.8% and is expected to continue expanding, reaching $28.12 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.6%. However, with AI coming into the picture, performance programmatic platforms are prone to ad fraud even more. The need for optimization of programmatic media buying with comprehensive ad fraud solution  across the advertising funnel is the necessity to yield results.  

More and more advertisers are pushing for a stronger and harder success KPI in programmatic campaigns. The shift from visibility only to performance-first is underway. With new and upcoming programmatic platforms selling inventory on impressions, it is today evident that impression fraud is 10-15% of campaign spends in the MENA region, as per mFilterIt reports. There is a ROI uplift of 7-10% when advertisers identify and block for Made-For-Ad sites and Ad Frequency cap violations. 

To read more visit: Ai in Programmatic Ad Fraud Detection.

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Ad Fraud Prevention across Programmatic advertising landscape in the USA

Programmatic has become the powerhouse behind ad placements in the U.S. However, alongside its growth, ad fraud has also skyrocketed, posing a significant challenge for brands trying to make the most of their digital ad spending. Ad fraud costs U.S. advertisers billions each year, and the automated process makes it increasingly difficult to detect and prevent.  

According to mFilterIt reports, bot traffic remains one of the biggest culprits, making up an estimated 20-25% of programmatic ad impressions. Meanwhile, the ANA report says low-quality “made-for-advertising” (MFA) sites account for roughly 10-15% of programmatic spending, delivering little value as they exist solely to serve ads on poorly engaging or irrelevant content. Even the burgeoning Connected TV (CTV) sector isn’t immune, with up to 17% of CTV programmatic impressions deemed fraudulent. Ad fraud solution with integrated brand safety is the key to optimizing programmatic ad campaigns. 

Are you aware of fraudulent or invalid traffic in your programmatic ad campaigns? The need for full-funnel protection with AI, ML-driven solutions, and real-time analysis, has never been greater. 

Click here to read more about programmatic advertising

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Optimize Your Programmatic Advertising efforts to stand tall in UAE

The advertising landscape in the UAE is witnessing an astonishing transformation. Advertisers are extensively moving towards Programmatic advertising for precise targeting and delivering personalized and relevant ads.  

Programmatic advertising employs data and technology to ensure that the right message gets to the right person at the right time, thereby increasing the effectiveness of overall marketing campaigns. 

What is Programmatic Advertising? 

Programmatic Advertising is a computerized method of technology for online buying and selling of advertisements. This technique uses software and algorithms to buy ads, making it more methodical and systematic than traditional methods. Instead of directly purchasing ad space from the publishers, advertisers employ different platforms as well as tools to focus on specific audiences and balance their ad expenditure in real-time. 

Programmatic Advertising in UAE.

Challenges in Programmatic Advertising  

While programmatic advertising has a lot of benefits, it also has some challenges as well. Here are some challenges: 

Ad Fraud in Programmatic Ads   

A serious issue related to the programmatic ad ecosystem is ad fraud. These fraudulent activities could lead to the offers being wasted and may be very poor in terms of ad campaigns; for instance, fake impressions and click fraud. Advertisers need to apply robust measures to fraud detection and prevention to protect their investment. 

Click here to read more about the Programmatic Advertising in UAE.

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Programmatic Advertising Trends Shaping the Digital Industry

While trends like the declining use of third-party cookies and the rise of stringent privacy laws may make it seem like it is the end of the road for programmatic advertising, the reality is quite the contrary.

Sure, these things have a direct impact on the way programmatic advertising is used, but their influence will simply mean that advertisers will have to get more creative with their approaches. In fact, since these changes have been in the works for some time now, advertisers are beginning to adapt.

It is clear that despite the changes in privacy laws and the decline of cookies, programmatic advertising is here to stay. However, for marketers who want to keep reaping the benefits of this amazing advertising technology, it has become imperative to keep up with the current trends.

Marketers will have to find innovative ways to target the right audience, and contextual advertising may prove to be a promising solution. With contextual advertising, instead of targeting user personas, advertisers place ads on websites based on the content of those websites which is contextually relevant.

This will benefit both users and advertisers. Users will not have to struggle with being subjected to irrelevant ads ruining the experience of the content they are trying to consume. At the same time, advertisers can rest assured that users are likely to show interest in their product/service since it is being advertised next to something contextually relevant.

Read more about Programmatic Advertising Trends.

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Programmatic Ad fraud: The bane of the Branding Campaigns

The global programmatic advertising market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.8% from 2024 to 2030. Programmatic advertising encompasses a wide range of digital channels, from walled gardens like Google and Facebook to connected television (CTV) and OTT. This variety of channels’ capacity increased the reach of advertisements to even broader groups of audiences.   

However, this wider scope of innovation has also opened the door to significant fraud, with programmatic ad fraud becoming a growing concern for marketers worldwide. With the programmatically run advertisements at $546billion in 2023 according to a Statista report, the volume of ad fraud and low-quality impressions stand at 15-20% according to mFilterIt reports. 

The simplest and most efficient way to protect the interest of your brand is to use ad fraud detection tool to combat the new tactics of fraud in programmatic ad ecosystem:  

In the case of F-Cap Violation using a creative serving hub, that sets the views per user per day to a certain limit with real-time monitoring to ensure no user sees the ad more than that set limit, helps to maximize reach and engagement.  

Read more about Programmatic Ad fraud

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Optimize Your Programmatic Advertising efforts to stand tall in UAE

Challenges in Programmatic Advertising  

While programmatic advertising has a lot of benefits, it also has some challenges as well. Here are some challenges: 

Ad Fraud in Programmatic Ads   

A serious issue related to the programmatic ad ecosystem is ad fraud. These fraudulent activities could lead to the offers being wasted and may be very poor in terms of ad campaigns; for instance, fake impressions and click fraud. Advertisers need to apply robust measures to fraud detection and prevention to protect their investment. 

Brand Safety with safe Ad placements  

Another critical challenge in the programmatic challenge is brand safety, which refers to making sure that ads are not placed alongside inappropriate or offensive content. Ensuring this will help reduce the risk by taking steps for brand safety and involving trusted partners. 

Ad Placement Relevancy  

Ad placement relevancy enables AI-based contextual level targeting that focuses on elements, logos, faces, keywords, objects, sentiments, and more for brands to place the right ads in the right ad space. We provide custom targeting and exclusion themes and accurate detection of unsafe content across a comprehensive set of brand safety categories as per the GARM guidelines. 

Despite its advantages such as efficiency, precision, and cost-effectiveness, it involves many complications including ad fraud, and brand safety issues among others. If advertisers comprehend how programmatic ads work and use appropriate optimization techniques, they can unlock the true potential of programmatic advertising and realize their marketing objectives. 

Click here to read more about the programmatic advertising in UAE

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Combatting Programmatic Ad Fraud: Traffic Validation with Integrated Brand Safety

Programmatic advertising offers unparalleled efficiency and reach. However, programmatic ad fraud is a growing problem that has dented the efficiency and return on investment (ROI). It not only leads to a massive loss in advertising Ad spend but also causes reputational damage.

Detection of Bot traffic is the major challenge in programmatic advertising. Automated blocking of ads such as invalid traffic in all branding campaigns across all programmatic platforms is critical for the success of the ad campaign.

mFiliter enables advertisers to validate branding campaign traffic with integrated brand safety. It provides media verification across the programmatic ecosystem or any other campaigns that have CPM payouts. 

Read more: Programmatic Ad Fraud

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Combatting Programmatic Ad Fraud: Traffic Validation with Integrated Brand Safety in UAE

Optimizing Programmatic ads — Ad Traffic Validation with integrated Brand safety

Detection of Bot traffic is the major challenge in programmatic advertising. Automated blocking of ads such as invalid traffic in all branding campaigns across all programmatic platforms is critical for the success of the ad campaign.

mFiliterIt enables advertisers to validate branding campaign traffic with integrated brand safety. It provides media verification across the programmatic ecosystem or any other campaigns that have CPM payouts. The integrated brand safety helps identify safe, unsafe, or irrelevant ad placement. A step that empowers advertisers beyond ad traffic validation.

Programmatic Advertising in UAE.

Click here to learn more about the Programmatic Advertising.

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Programmatic Advertising Trends Shaping the Digital Industry in UAE

It is clear that despite the changes in privacy laws and the decline of cookies, programmatic advertising is here to stay. However, for marketers who want to keep reaping the benefits of this amazing advertising technology, it has become imperative to keep up with the current trends.

Top 7 Programmatic Advertising Trends

1. In-House Programmatic Run

Many ad agencies and brands are expected to stop outsourcing their programmatic ad management and pull those operations in-house. The trend has been prevalent for the last few years, with more companies focused on squeezing out the maximum possible ROI from ad investments (more on this later).

With lower spending on the management aspect of advertising, this move, when executed correctly, can provide a significant boost to ROAS (Return On Ad Spend). For those working in an in-house marketing team, this will mean developing new skills just to stay relevant in the industry. That said, those who can adapt proficiently will find themselves in an advantageous position, having learned a high-value skill for the future.

Click here to learn more about the Programmatic Advertising

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Ad fraud detection - App, Web and programmatic | mFilterIt

mFilterIt Valid8, an Ad fraud solution, and fraud prevention suite provides full-funnel protection to advertising campaigns from invalid traffic on the web & app to enhance ROAS throughout the customer acquisition journey. For Branding Campaigns or Programmatic advertising,  it covers, Frequency Cap Violation and Exclusion lists for Made For Ads (MFA) Sites with integrated brand safety. 

For Performance Campaigns, safeguards from frauds in CPC, CPV, CPL web campaigns, and search keyword fraud. It also has Visit-Lead Validation capabilities. Visit analysis based on Visit Intent with Invalid Traffic Validation ensures validated leads get integrated into CRM. It leverages Location & Campaign Optimization Keywords Strategy (LOCOKS) that tracks the usage and flow of brand and competition keywords to empower advertisers to maximize brand visibility, increase customer engagement, and drive business growth. In the OTT Ad Monitoring segment, Valid8 tracks all brands’ ad performance across OTT with real-time alerts to map competition.Visit to Ad fraud detection tools.

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Combatting Programmatic Ad Fraud: Traffic Validation with Integrated Brand Safety

Programmatic advertising offers unparalleled efficiency and reach. However, programmatic ad fraud is a growing problem that has dented the efficiency and return on investment (ROI). It not only leads to a massive loss in advertising Ad spend but also causes reputational damage.

Programmatic ad fraud mainly includes generating fake clicks and impressions using bots and automated systems. Inflated ad spending, depleted ROI, and eroded trust caused by programmatic fraud are significant consequences. Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning-driven tech with monitoring, analysis, and real-time actionable insights is needed to optimize programmatic ad campaigns.

Optimizing Programmatic ads – Ad Traffic Validation with integrated Brand safety

Detection of Bot traffic is the major challenge in programmatic advertising. Automated blocking of ads such as invalid traffic in all branding campaigns across all programmatic platforms is critical for the success of the ad campaign.

mFiliter enables advertisers to validate branding campaign traffic with integrated brand safety. It provides media verification across the programmatic ecosystem or any other campaigns that have CPM payouts. The integrated brand safety helps identify safe, unsafe, or irrelevant ad placement. A step that empowers advertisers beyond ad traffic validation.

Read More: Programmatic Ad Fraud.

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Ad Fraud Validation

mFilterIt Valid8, an Ad fraud solution, and fraud prevention suite provides full-funnel protection to advertising campaigns from invalid traffic on the web & app to enhance ROAS throughout the customer acquisition journey. For Branding Campaigns or Programmatic advertising,  it covers, Frequency Cap Violation and Exclusion lists for Made For Ads (MFA) Sites with integrated brand safety. 

For Performance Campaigns, safeguards from frauds in CPC, CPV, CPL web campaigns, and search keyword fraud. It also has Visit-Lead Validation capabilities. Visit analysis based on Visit Intent with Invalid Traffic Validation ensures validated leads get integrated into CRM. It leverages Location & Campaign Optimization Keywords Strategy (LOCOKS) that tracks the usage and flow of brand and competition keywords to empower advertisers to maximize brand visibility, increase customer engagement, and drive business growth. In the OTT Ad Monitoring segment, Valid8 tracks all brands’ ad performance across OTT with real-time alerts to map competition.