This document discusses ad fraud and the findings of a study that analyzed bot fraud across digital advertising. Some key findings include that video fraud is higher than display fraud, and fraud from programmatic buying is higher than non-programmatic. Fraud rates are also higher between midnight and 8am, and sourced traffic has higher fraud levels. It provides recommendations for advertisers such as running ads during waking hours, requiring transparency into sourced traffic, excluding older browsers, updating terms and conditions, and incentivizing agencies for fraud management. A new collaborative initiative called TAG was also launched to build trust in the digital supply chain.

1. WTF is Ad
Fraud?

3. Breaking news…
25-50% of money spent on
digital advertising is
wasted!

4. Advertiser
Agency
Publisher

6. Study Objectives
• Determine level of bot fraud
occurring across digital
advertising of leading national
advertisers
• Provide actionable data which
advertisers can use to assess and
reduce/eliminate bot fraud in
future

7. Bot fraud =
“The World’s Most Sophisticated
Cyber Crime”
- Michael Tiffany, CEO and Co-Founder,
White Ops

8. ANA Member Participants

9. ANA Member Participants

10. KEY FINDINGS

11. Video Fraud Higher
than Display Fraud

12. Programmatic
Higher than Non-
Programmatic

13. Fraud Higher
between Midnight
and 8am

14. Sourced Traffic has
Higher Fraud

15. Action Steps

16. Advertise During Waking
Hours
• Bot percentage varies by time. At night, bot
fraud represents a much higher proportion
of the traffic.
• Advertisers can minimize bots by running
advertising during waking hours in each
time zone.

17. Sourced Traffic
Transparency
• Build language in RFPs and IOs that
require publishers to identify all third party
sources of traffic.
• Further, advertisers should have the option
of rejecting sourced traffic and running
their advertising only via traffic direct from
publishers.

18. Exclude Older Browsers
• A high percentage of impressions coming
from IE6 and IE7 browsers are bot traffic.
• Ask key publishers if they are still active on
IE6 (2001 original release date) or IE7
(2007 original release date); if they are,
consider excluding these impressions from
your buys.

19. T&C Language on Non-
Human
• Media Company will establish, implement
and use all commercially reasonable
technology and methodologies to: (i)
prevent Fraudulent Traffic; (ii) detect
Fraudulent Traffic should it occur; and (iii)
promptly take steps to prevent continuation
and/or recurrence of occurrences thereof.

20. Incentivize Your Agency
• Provide a performance incentive bonus to
your media agency for fraud management.

22. 4A’s and ANA Join IAB in
Launching Cross-Industry
Compliance Organization to
Combat Ad Fraud, Malware, &
Piracy
New Collaborative Initiative To Build a
Trustworthy Supply Chain, Encouraging
Marketers and Media Buyers To Further Invest
in Interactive Marketing

23. Trustworthy Accountability Group
TAG

28. Randall Rothenberg, President and
CEO, IAB:
“Criminal activity threatens to erode
trust in the digital ecosystem,” said.
“Quality, original content is not
sufficiently protected against the
threats of fraudulent traffic, malware
attacks, and IP piracy, and it is time
that publishers, marketers and agencies

29. TAKEAWAY #1
The industry must re-establish
trust in the
digital supply chain.

30. TAKEAWAY #2
Advertisers must play an
active role – more so
than ever before.

31. WTF is Ad
Fraud?