What is Ad Fraud and How to Prevent It? Complete Guide for Publishers

Programmatic advertising has ushered in a new era of precision and efficiency, empowering marketers to connect with their target audiences like never before. This transformative approach has revolutionized consumer engagement resulting in substantial revenue growth and enhanced brand impact. However, amidst the increasing adoption of programmatic ads, a grave challenge has emerged—ad fraud. 

According to Statista, the worldwide cost of digital ad fraud reached a staggering $65 billion in 2021. Alarming predictions indicate that this figure is poised to grow exponentially from $35 billion in 2018 to $100 billion by 2023. Ad fraud is swiftly eroding advertising budgets, making it imperative to deploy sophisticated ad verification tools, technology, and robust brand safety measures to combat this pervasive issue effectively.

Preventing ad fraud is crucial for businesses to stay relevant in today’s ad tech ecosystem. Let’s take a close look at proactive measures to combat this challenge of programmatic advertising 

What is ad fraud?

Ad fraud refers to fraudulent activities that occur in the realm of digital advertising. It simply means ad fraud in programmatic advertising is a malicious practice that prevents the ads from being delivered to the target audience. 

It formerly began as a means to inflate website traffic and generate higher advertising revenue. Earlier ad fraud techniques included refreshing web pages repeatedly or using automated scripts to generate artificial clicks on ads. These practices aimed to deceive advertisers into believing their ads were receiving more genuine engagement than they actually were.

Common ad fraud examples include practices that artificially inflate ad impressions, clicks, or conversions, resulting in wasted ad spend, inaccurate performance metrics, and diminished campaign effectiveness. 

Correlation between ad fraud and programmatic advertising

The arrival of programmatic advertising did bring about a significant shift in the digital landscape, introducing new complexities that, in turn, created opportunities for ad fraud to occur. Programmatic advertising involves the automated buying and selling of ad inventory through real-time bidding and advanced algorithms. While it has revolutionized the efficiency and scale of ad buying, it has also presented challenges that can be exploited by fraudsters.

Moreover, programmatic advertising relies on data-driven targeting, which can inadvertently contribute to ad fraud. Fraudsters can manipulate this data to create fake user profiles or generate non-human traffic, leading to wasted ad spend and inaccurate targeting. While programmatic advertising itself is not the cause of ad fraud, its complex nature and reliance on automation have provided a fertile ground for fraudulent activities to thrive.

What are the types of ad fraud in programmatic advertising? 

There are multiple ad fraud techniques prevailing in programmatic advertising. Here are the top 10 common types of ad fraud.

1. Bad bot traffic 

Although there are bots that serve legitimate purposes, it is crucial to differentiate them from bad bots, which contribute to bad bot traffic. It refers to web traffic generated by automated software programs instead of real human users. These bots are specifically designed to replicate human behavior and can interact with display ads, browse websites, click on ads, and undertake actions that have the potential to deceive publishers. Understanding what is bot traffic and their types is paramount in maintaining a secure and transparent online environment. 

2. Cookie stuffing

Instead, publishers are more likely to be victims of cookie stuffing perpetrated by fraudulent affiliates or third parties. They are at risk of suffering the negative consequences associated with this fraudulent activity, such as inflated conversion rates, deteriorated user experience, lost revenue opportunities, and reputation damage. 

3. Click fraud

Click fraud refers to the practice of generating fraudulent clicks on display ads with the intention to deceive advertisers or manipulate ad campaign metrics. Click fraud can be perpetrated by individuals, bots, or automated scripts. This type of ad fraud in programmatic advertising can negatively impact the user experience on a publisher’s website. 

4. Ad injection

Ad injection can harm brand safety and significantly impact publishers’ revenue. The injected ads are often irrelevant and out of context, appearing alongside legitimate content on a publisher’s website. In terms of revenue, ad injection diverts traffic and potential ad clicks away from legitimate placements, resulting in lost monetization opportunities for publishers. Even though advertisers may receive ad traffic, publishers do not earn any revenue from these unauthorized injected ads. 

5. Viewability fraud 

Viewability fraud is a type of ad fraud in programmatic advertising that aims to create the illusion that ads were genuinely viewed by real users, despite the fact that this may not be the case.  This type of ad fraud can involve various techniques that deceive multiple ad revenue metrics for publishers and create the illusion of ad impressions or views.

6. Ad stacking

In ad stacking, multiple ads are served within the same ad slot, but only the topmost ad is visible to the user. The remaining ads are hidden from view, often by making their dimensions very small or positioning them off-screen. Despite being hidden, these ads are still counted as impressions, leading to a fake impression count and misleading advertisers about the actual visibility and engagement of their ads.

7. Pixel stuffing

Pixel stuffing is an ad fraud technique that has multiple ad pixels, often invisible to users, inserted within a webpage or ad placement. These hidden pixels are then counted as ad impressions, giving the false impression that multiple ads were served and viewed by users.

8. Domain spoofing

The purpose of domain spoofing is to deceive advertisers and ad exchanges, leading them to believe that their ads will be displayed on high-quality and brand-safe platforms. This type of ad fraud refers to manipulating the identity of a website or app to falsely represent it as a reputable or premium publisher. 

9. SDK spoofing

SDK spoofing, also known as software development kit spoofing is highly detrimental to in-app mobile advertising. involves the manipulation or impersonation of mobile app data to deceive advertisers and ad networks.

10. Location fraud

Location fraud specifically focuses on deceiving advertisers and publishers about the geographic location of users or devices. It involves misrepresenting the actual physical location to target ads or manipulating pricing based on location-specific parameters. This may use ad fraud techniques such as GPS spoofing, IP masking, or other methods to falsify location data associated with ad impressions. 

What is the impact of different types of ad fraud on publishers?

1. Fake lead generation

Ad fraud can deceive publishers by creating the illusion of increased traffic, conversions, sign-ups, or clicks on ads. Fraudsters employ various techniques to generate fake engagements that appear legitimate, leading publishers to believe they are receiving valuable user interactions. Publishers may allocate their resources, such as time, budget, and manpower, based on the misleading performance metrics influenced by ad fraud. This can hinder the growth and profitability of publishers’ businesses as they may not be focusing on the most effective strategies.

2. Loss of ad revenue

Ad fraud can be challenging to detect, especially in its early stages. Fraudsters continuously evolve their tactics to evade detection, making it difficult for publishers to identify and stop fraudulent activities. As a result, publishers may initially perceive an apparent increase in ad performance and revenue, which gives a false sense of progress and success.

Unfortunately, by the time publishers become aware of ad fraud and its consequences, they may have already suffered significant ad revenue losses and other negative impacts. The consequences can extend beyond financial losses and affect various aspects of their business, including reputation, advertiser relationships, and user trust.

3. Affects brand reputation

Ad fraud undermines a publisher’s brand reputation and brand safety. It compromises brand safety by causing ads to appear in inappropriate or fraudulent contexts. Ad fraud techniques such as domain spoofing or ad injection can result in ads being displayed on websites or apps that are unrelated or even harmful to a brand’s image. This not only reduces the effectiveness of advertising campaigns but also puts the brand’s reputation at risk by associating it with questionable or harmful content.

4. Termination of partnership 

Ad fraud can potentially result in publishers being blacklisted from ad networks, supply-side platforms (SSPs), demand-side platforms (DSPs), or ad exchanges. Ad platforms such as CPC/PPC ad networks have a vested interest in maintaining the integrity and quality of their ad inventory. When fraudulent activities are detected or suspected by a particular publisher, these networks and platforms may take decisive actions to protect their advertisers and maintain the trust of their users. 

How to detect ad fraud? 

Publishers can employ a variety of techniques to detect ad fraud and it is recommended to consistently utilize these methods for ongoing monitoring.

1. Traffic analysis

Traffic analysis is indeed a valuable method for detecting ad fraud. Publishers can leverage advanced traffic acquisition data from Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to gain deeper insights into their website’s performance and identify potential ad fraud indicators. By utilizing GA4’s enhanced measurement capabilities, publishers can get a comprehensive view of user behavior, cross-platform and cross-device data. 

2. IP address analysis 

IP address analysis is a technique used by publishers to detect ad fraud and understand the origin of website traffic. By analyzing the IP addresses of visitors, publishers can gain insights into the location, authenticity, and potential fraudulence of the traffic. It also helps to validate the claimed location of website visitors. Publishers can cross-reference the geolocation data with other user information to ensure consistency and identify discrepancies that may indicate fraudulent activity.

3. Bot detection

IP addresses are key in detecting varied ad fraud types including filtering out fake traffic aka bad bot traffic. By examining the IP addresses associated with suspicious behavior, such as repetitive clicks or high-volume traffic from a single IP address, publishers can identify potential bot-generated traffic. This helps in improving the quality of traffic and reducing the impact of ad fraud on ad campaigns and revenue. 

How to prevent ad fraud? 

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) provides guidelines and best practices to enhance brand safety and protect against fraudulent activities. Here are some key brand safety guidelines recommended by the IAB:

1. Contextual targeting 

Contextual advertising has emerged as one of the top programmatic ad trends for 2023 for several reasons and prevention from ad fraud is one of them. Utilizing first-party data is an effective strategy for contextual targeting and minimizing the risk of ad fraud. By reducing reliance on third-party data providers, who may be susceptible to fraudulent practices and inaccuracies, publishers can enhance the accuracy and integrity of their targeting efforts. This technique holds immense importance in preparing for the impending cookieless world next year.

2. Choose the right programmatic platform 

Partnering with programmatic platforms that have built-in brand safety and ad fraud prevention tools can be highly beneficial for publishers. These tools help publishers safeguard their ad inventory, mitigate the risk of ad fraud, and maintain brand reputation. By choosing a programmatic platform with strong brand safety measures, publishers can have greater confidence in the quality and safety of the ads served on their platforms.

3. Transparency

Publishers must focus on building transparency in the ad tech ecosystem. One of the top ways to do so is through direct programmatic. It refers to the practice of establishing direct relationships between publishers and advertisers, bypassing intermediaries. By working directly with trusted partners, publishers can have more control and visibility over the ad placements and the sources of traffic.

4. Ad verification tools 

Ad verification solutions are software tools and services designed to monitor and filter ad placements to ensure they meet brand safety criteria. These tools use various techniques like AI, machine learning, and contextual analysis to detect fraudulent activities, non-compliant content, and potentially harmful environments. Some popular ad verification tools in the market include DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science (IAS), Moat, and WhiteOps.

Ad fraud is undeniably one of the common challenges in programmatic advertising, yet it continues to be a pervasive issue that is often neglected. It is crucial for advertisers, publishers, and industry stakeholders to actively address and combat ad fraud to ensure the integrity and sustainability of programmatic advertising. 

By consistently monitoring website activities, analyzing ad performance, and collaborating with reputable ad tech platforms that provide verified safety measures, publishers can alleviate the concerns associated with ad fraud and concentrate on their core objective of producing high-quality content