Performance Marketing
Leadership Summit
November 3rd 2009
Peter Bordes, CEO, MediaTrust

State of the Industry
#1 problem in the industry is fraud. It hurts industry growth
because:
• It cripples existing business and hurts future growth
• Brand advertisers don’t trust the channel, so big budgets
are staying on sidelines
• Existing advertisers hurt by chargebacks, losses of
merchant accounts, lead fraud
• Performance marketing segment is losing advertisers to
other trusted direct response channels
• Publishers have a difficult time nding campaigns with
longevity

The Industry is Growing, But...
US Online Affiliate Spending - 2005-2012 (Billions)
$3.3
$2.9
$2.6
$2.3
$2.1
$1.8
$1.6
$1.3
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Online Affiliate Marketing SpendingTitle Source: Jupiter Research 2008
Category

The reputation of the
industry is being
damaged ... the fraud
issue needs to be
addressed
immediately!

Why is Fraud Prevalent?
• Our Industry has a history of “siloed”, fragmented networks.
• Data is “black-boxed” and there is a lack of transparency
• Our industry is reactive vs being proactive/in front of issues
• Fraud rings can move around due to
lack of industry communication and
sharing of data
• Few industry associations exist to
establish standards, best practices
and self-regulation
• Issue is swept under the rug because people are
still making money and afraid to talk about it
• It’s up to the networks and platforms to solve this problem

Fraud Example*
• Fraud rings are openly buying and selling approved CPA
network accounts so that others can login with them to
defraud advertisers and end-users
* unfortunately, this is one of MANY types of fraud we see every week

So what is MediaTrust doing?
• Publisher on-boarding process re-architected to be much
more rigorous
• Publisher cross-referencing between partner networks
• Publisher referencing from trusted publishers
• Site and landing page review to examine for nefarious
practices
• Development of "trusted criteria"
for existing network of publishers
• Removal of 1000’s of untrusted and
un-veri ed publishers
• Real-time analysis of live
campaigns via proprietary fraud
detection software

MediaTrust Process Details

MediaTrust Process Details

Results Come Fast
• We have already earned a reputation as one of the most difficult
platforms to get into
• Fewer “bad publishers” are applying and our publisher conversion rates
have increased with our more demanding sign up process

What should the Industry do?
• Support our industry
association -the PMA- to set
standards/guidelines and
create research
• Industry leaders need to band
together and develop self-
regulation guidelines
• Create transparency via shared
data among providers to
prevent fraud rings, nefarious
affiliates, etc
• Generate industry publisher
and advertiser whitelists to
keep out dodgy players
• Develop education and
accreditation programs