Preventing Ad Fraud in Programmatic Buying

Staff WritersBuyer InsightsNative & Programmatic AdvertisingSales & Marketing

By Paroma Sen On Oct 16, 2020

A conversation with Josh Pyne, VP of Advertising Sales at Vibenomics

“It’s estimated that over 17% of ads are exposed to fraudulent activity in 2020,’’ shares Josh Pyne, VP of Advertising Sales at Vibenomics in this quick chat with SalesTechStar while sharing his thoughts on preventing ad frauds in programmatic buying. As more media dollars shift to programmatic buying ad fraud is becoming a top concern for ad planners and buyers. Catch the whole story where Josh uncovers key insights that can help protect your digital advertising strategy from fraudulent waste.

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Josh Pyne

Tell us a little about yourself Josh…what are some of the biggest highlights of being in tech marketing/sales for you?

At Vibenomics, as a VP of Advertising Sales, I’m bringing brands, agencies and marketers into closer, more meaningful relationships with their existing, new and target audiences. My expertise lies in strategic and tactical marketing including new product introduction and launches, product architecture and specification, brand development, and more. My team at Vibenomics works together to understand different media budget buckets across programmatic, shopper marketing, OOH, digital and brand strategy and how our new offering – Audio Out-of-Home – fits into marketing plans.

Online fraud including ad fraud is rising in today’s digital environment; what should marketing and sales teams be aware of the most when it comes to the most common ad frauds?

No one wants to be scammed online, but it can happen to the best of us. Even experienced sales and marketer professionals have been duped into believing a scam website is credible. A common “trick” in the world of digital advertising is click fraud, one of the most basic types of fraud that generates fake traffic through automated clicking platforms or click farms. While this may boost the click-through ratio of online ads, it will never result in a sale, and can be a huge waste of your money. Speaking of a waste of money, ad fraud accounts for one out of every three dollars spent by digital advertisers – and unless a dramatic change is made, Forrester predicts that the industry stands to lose $10.9 billion from fraudulent advertising this year.

Fraud detection is difficult enough, but marketing and sales teams need to have a better understanding of ad fraud, whether that’s through continued education, spreading awareness, or having a preventative strategy in place. In addition, when marketers and salespeople think of the term brand safety, it’s usually associated with legal compliance, rules, and regulations. Nowadays, younger generation consumers such as millennials and below, have higher expectations of that brand relationship whether it’s cultural, philanthropic, and/or political. Marketers and salespeople need to start asking questions like “how are we building and reinstalling trust with that consumer directly from the brand?”

How have you seen marketing teams in leading companies address issues related to ad fraud? What are some top platforms that are helping marketing / sales teams here?

It’s important to remember that ad fraud is not a publisher problem or advertiser problem, it’s an industry problem. Only by working together and remaining vigilant can the industry triumph over the bad guys. A few strategies I highly recommend marketers and sales teams do to combat ad fraud is to first offer custom content that cannot be easily replicated or spoofed. Secondly, work directly with partners and publishers as opposed to going through a third-party broker so you have direct transparency into what that platform is, what the engagement looks like, and how your ad performed. Lastly, be sure to utilize closed-loop or multi-touch attribution within your campaigns, that way, marketers can not only look into the number of impressions, clicks, or views of the advertisement, but have access to social engagement, media metrics, and how all of those different aspects play together.

What are some of the top tips / suggestions you would share with marketers when it comes to saving marketing dollars from ad fraud?

Concerns over advertising fraud are on the rise, and with good reason. The amount of lost revenue on fraudulent web traffic is expected to soar to $16.4 billion, according to research by WPP. That number is more than double the $7.2 billion the Association of National Advertisers estimated would be lost due to online ad fraud just last year. While it’s often difficult for advertisers and publishers to quantify the financial impact fraud has had on their business, the industry has started working together to deal with the issue.

How according to you will the rest of the year play out for businesses and the economy, what are your top predictions?

Ad fraud is one of the top concerns of ad planners and buyers today. Increased visibility specifically into the programmatic supply chain, is working towards mitigating the issue. By 2022, the estimated revenue loss due to various forms of ad fraud is expected to cross the $44 billion mark world wide. This goes to show that ad fraud is a growing problem in the world of marketing but it’s not impossible to overcome. Many marketers are adapting their media strategy to include brand safe, ad fraud proof mediums like Audio Out-of-Home advertising to combat the high cost of digital ad fraud traffic.

Any other thoughts for us before we wrap up, on remote work, remote selling tips?

One of the most important things while working remotely is to maintain a regular schedule. Routine helps keep you focused and productive during this new professional era. Although technology has its quirks, leveraging video meeting platforms helps keep the human connection and person touch aspect of the sales process intact. Establishing regular touchpoints with your internal team is also useful in ensuring continuity of workflow and maintaining company culture.

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