What Marketers Can Do Now To Conquer Ad Fraud

January 16th, 2018 | Matthew Chung, Manager, Communications and Content

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As the industry rolls into 2018, ACA spoke with industry leaders about their plans. Last week, we spoke with comScore Canada. Read on to hear from AAM Canada Vice President and General Manager Joan Brehl, as she takes one last look back at 2017 and share goals for the year ahead. Read on for her advice to marketers for 2018.

ACA: What lesson from 2017 will you be applying to 2018?

In 2017, the industry acknowledged digital ad fraud as an enormous problem that costs reputable publishers and marketers an estimated $6 to $16 billion annually. We spent a lot of time discussing how ad fraud happens and debating different ways to curb it.

2018 will see marketers continue to take control of their digital media spend by using whitelists, bringing programmatic in house, using private marketplaces or buying direct, and encouraging use of ads.txt. As marketers adopt these solutions we must also identify and differentiate the good publishers who invest in and prioritize human audiences.

ACA: Where should industry be focused/where will your AAM be focused for 2018?

Helping publishers create and promote quality audiences and providing marketers confidence in their investments are tenets that AAM has championed for more than 100 years. Independent, third-party publisher audits have historically reduced fraud in other forms of media. Now it’s digital media’s turn.

Publishers who commit to an audit are signalling their good intentions and willingness to prove it. They freely open their business practices, processes and reporting to third-party review. AAM will continue to focus on connecting quality publishers with marketers who want to reach verified human audiences.

ACA: What advice do you have for client marketers as they start the new year?

After this past year, everyone understands that ad fraud is huge; probably bigger than anyone realized. Marketers are demanding a solution so they can stop worrying about ad fraud and get back to focusing on their core responsibilities. Quality publishers need to be differentiated from the bad apples that are allowing ad fraud to fester and grow. The easiest way to prevent fraud from spreading is to demand publishers prove they have quality, human audiences. It isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. 2018 is here and the time to conquer ad fraud is now.