TAG deploys new initiative to counter ad fraud

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The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) launched its “Certified Against Fraud” initiative on Monday, Ad Age reports.

This new initiative will award “TAG Certified Against Fraud” seals to buyers, sellers, and intermediaries in the digital ad supply chain that fulfill certain anti-fraud requirements. Ad fraud driven by bot – or nonhuman – traffic is expected to cost the digital media industry $7.2 billion by the end of 2016, according to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). 

TAG was created by the ANA, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau to combat digital ad fraud. Agencies, advertisers, ad platforms, and publishers are able to apply to the TAG registry. The underlying goal of the registry is to create a marketplace of digital ad buyers and sellers that are each certified as working to minimize ad fraud. 

Once approved, these companies receive a unique ID tag that identifies them as partners in the TAG ecosystem and digital ad supply chain. TAG also plans to debut a Payment ID system that will link ad inventory to sellers. This system aims to minimize the reliance on current software that links inventory to sellers, but also generates adverse bot traffic.

The registration process involves a thorough background check and costs around $10,000 per year (but the fee will be waived for smaller businesses and publishers). It proceeds in the following way: 

• Direct buyers, including advertisers and advertiser agents, must register, appoint a dedicated compliance officer internally to manage the relationship with TAG, and comply with the Media Rating Council's Invalid Traffic (IVT) Detection and Filtration Guidelines. Once approved, these companies will receive a unique ID tag that will identify its ads to partners in the TAG-network supply chain. 

• Direct sellers, including publishers and publisher agents, must comply with all steps required of buyers, and in addition implement domain list filtering, data center IP list filtering, and publisher sourcing disclosures. 

• Intermediaries, including ad networks and other indirect buyers and sellers, must comply with all steps required by buyers and sellers, and in addition implement, TAG's Payment ID protocol. 

More than 50 major companies that make up the majority of ad spend are in the process of obtaining these IDs, and that number is expected to double shortly, TAG CEO Mike Zaneis told BI Intelligence. Encouraging industrywide adoption of TAG will be necessary for the program's success. Existing TAG participants include programmatic companies such as Google, Rubicon Project, AOL, and AppNexus, measurement companies like comScore, and the four largest advertising holding companies, WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, and Interpublic.

Internet bots — or computer software programmed to engage in criminal cyber activities — siphon billions of dollars a year from the ad industry. These bots create websites filled with infringed content and generate fake traffic through a complex network of infected computers. In 2016, ad fraud created by internet bots is expected to cost advertisers $7.2 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2015, according to a report from the Association of National Advertises (ANA) and White Ops. The increasing cost of ad fraud is forcing both ad buyers and sellers to reevaluate how and where to spend ad budgets.

Margaret Boland, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on ad fraud that lays out how bot traffic originates and the various points where it breaks into the digital media ecosystem. It also discusses the most important trends in bot traffic on the buy and sell sides, based on conversations BI Intelligence conducted with industry executives. Further, it explains how new industry standards and industry groups like the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) are looking to mitigate the impact of bot traffic. Finally, it walks through the effects of AppNexus' decision to eliminate bot traffic from its ad network.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Botnets are still primarily a desktop problem, but that is expected to change in the coming years. Bot traffic is not as common on mobile devices, both because detection firms have yet to make the technology to account for bot traffic and because bot operators have less revenue to gain from targeting mobile. But bots are expected to follow ad spend and eventually become more prevalent on mobile.

• Impression-based campaigns see a greater share of bot traffic than performance-based campaigns, while more expensive ad formats tend to be hit harder than less expensive inventory. Bot operators try to gain as much revenue as possible through their fraud activities and thus typically target more expensive ads.

• Both the sell side and the buy side are responsible for mitigating the effects of bot traffic. Publishers are responsible for knowing where they are sourcing their traffic from so as not to sell adverts that have a chance of being seen by nonhuman users. Ad platforms and exchanges should attempt to eliminate ad fraud from their supply by removing publishers sourcing high levels of bot traffic. Buyers need to reevaluate their buying practices and — if possible — place a greater emphasis on inventory quality rather than efficiency and cheapness.

In full, the report:

• Explains what exactly constitutes ad fraud stemming from bot traffic and who is behind these bots.

• Breaks down how exactly bots enter the digital media ecosystem.

• Discusses the top 5 trends stemming from bot traffic based on conversations BI Intelligence conducted with industry executives.

• Outlines how the industry is responding to the rise of ad fraud, namely through third-party verification firms and the TAG initiative.

• Lays out how AppNexus, one of the largest programmatic supply side platforms, took strides to eliminate ad fraud on its platform and the impact of that initiative.

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See Also:

• Facebook is shutting down Facebook Exchange

• Snapchat's 'X-Men: Apocalypse' deal could bring more advertisers to the app

• People are largely fine with ads if it means the Internet is free