Ad Networks Are Starting To Get Their Anti-Fraud Ducks In A Row

▤ Summary

“That’s the point when the real struggle begins because everyone starts fighting about who is responsible and who is going to pay for the damage, and that leads to a lot of uncomfortable discussions,” said Christian Henschel, CEO of app analytics and measurement company Adjust. “The ad network can’t retrieve the money, so that’s it for them.” But Henschel is hoping a growing trend around transparency and information sharing will serve the dual purpose of fighting fraud and getting the appropriate parties paid. “While traditional advertising agencies are incentivized to look the other way, we operate on a performance-driven model that aligns our incentives with our partners and pushes us to constantly squeeze maximum efficiency,” said Faber, who noted that Flatiron Collective has relationships with “all the major mobile ad networks.” So far this year, Flatiron Collective has been able to detect and refute more than $2 million in fraudulent traffic by combing through user behavior looking red flags and anomalies and by tapping into Adjust’s suite of anti-fraud tools to suss out fake traffic and block payment on anything that looks suspicious. “Until recently, this was a manual process, and some fraud always slipped through the cracks.” Although proactively tossing out bad traffic could cut down on a middleman’s profits in the short term, it’s ultimately worth it, Greiner said. Smaato, for example, a mobile supply-side platform with hooks into hundreds of ad networks and DSPs and a Protected Media client, has an internal quality team whose primary function is to analyze traffic and get rid of the bad stuff.

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