Digital Element’s Post

I can speak this, as the platform Forbes Advisor, is an ad business disguised as a advice marketplace, but everyone thinks it is the real Forbes. The company the owns Forbes is called Integrated Whale Media Investment. (Real name no gimmicks) This leads to the a closer look at the entire Ad industry and the recent death of the cookie. Enshittification Theory- coined by Cory Doctorow... the pattern of decreasing quality observed on online services and products. Also called platform decay. The entire internet is about 40% BOTS at this point anyway, because these companies are more interested in pleasing shareholders than the users. The data sets on what what was user generated content are now poisoned because the algorithms are easily tricked.. Now they are releasing AI search engines which will be crawled by AI bots to make everyone happy, the advertisers with seemingly real users (AI) The platforms will benefit from the revenue and all the content will be bad for the rest of us. Forbes is not alone in this.

While I can’t speak to the legitimacy of the accusations herein, this is still a worrying situation for advertisers everywhere. Publications whose reputations are staked on their image of legitimate business are not what many may expect to be perpetrators of MFA Ad fraud. That being said, we can better understand ad fraud by looking at the incentive changes on the supply side of these AdTech deals. Ad fraud particularly harms multicultural publishers, as their reach and impact receive decreased impact when improperly assigned to Ad spaces. #AdFraud #AdTech #ProgramaticSupplyChain

A new report from Adalytics, an ad quality firm, alleges that #Forbes systematically misled advertisers into believing they were buying media on Forbes.com when they were actually buying media on a secret, spammy ‘made for advertising’ (MFA) subdomain, www3 (.) Forbes (.) com Commenting, Chair of the UK Stop Ad Funded Crime (UKSAFC) group, Ian Moss, said: “The scale of fraud alleged by this new report is staggering. The UKSAFC has for some time been warning about practices like MFA sites which deceive brands into paying for what they believe is legitimate ad space – but is in fact a sophisticated way to defraud them of their ad spend. This report should serve as a wake-up call to industry and policymakers about how pervasive fraud is in the online advertising ecosystem. Policymakers must urgently introduce measures to improve transparency so everyone in the system can verify who is being paid and that views are legitimate. Only then can we tackle widespread ad fraud and restore confidence in online advertising.” Read the full story on The Drum here: https://lnkd.in/eBtZFfbw

Ad fraud is estimated to be in the billions of dollars in Australia, with wastage totaling around $6bn according to recent research shared in this article from Mediaweek. With consumer data protection becoming a growing concern, it's crucial to consider what local, regulated media vendors can offer in both traditional and digital formats. Don't let wastage and ad fraud impact your bottom line this year when alternatives are available! #boomtown #effectiveadvertisinginvestment

With all due respect to Anthony Vargas, the subject of this AdExchanger article mistargets blame. We cannot be passing the buck by chastising ad verification vendors for missing an MFA fraud edge case. And even Media.net's likely complicity isn't where we should be pointing fingers. The perpetrator is the publisher, who created this MFA garbage dump and duped advertisers and agencies that trusted their brand for its quality and accountability. Since last week, has any SSP or DSP removed Forbes from their programmatic auctions? Have brands placed Forbes in the penalty box? Is Forbes still earning tens (hundreds?) of thousands in programmatic revenue every day? We all love the adtech punching bag. But in this case, redirecting blame because a watchdog failed to catch an unusual edge case misses the point that a trusted publishing brand breached its social contract and nobody seems to be doing anything but pushing its nose into the shit on the carpet and saying "bad dog." If we leave the incentives for fraud in place, it'll just keep happening.

The latest DoubleVerify 'DV Global Insights: 2024 Trends Report' has found global ad fraud rates are up 14% to 1.3% in ANZ, making it the second worst performer in the Asia-Pacific region: https://lnkd.in/ggwtdFnp #advertising #digitaladvertising #digitalmarketing #adfraud

Ad Fraud: The Silent Killer of Digital Advertising Imagine pouring $71.37 billion into a black hole. That's the staggering amount of ad spends expected to be wasted in 2024 due to ad fraud. It's a crisis that threatens the very fabric of our industry. As advertisers, agencies, and ad tech companies, we're the firefighters who must join forces to extinguish this inferno. We need to harness cutting-edge tech, transparency, and accountability to outsmart the fraudsters. It's imperative that we acknowledge the severity of ad fraud and its far-reaching consequences, from diminished trust in digital advertising to the loss of substantial revenue. The clock is ticking. We need to safeguard the integrity of digital advertising and ensure that our hard-earned dollars fuel real results, not fake traffic. The future of our industry depends on it. At Kensaltensi and Alkimi we are working towards a transparent ad-funded internet. https://lnkd.in/gGFGHJxk #AdFraud #DigitalAdvertising #AdvertisingIndustry #Transparency #Accountability Financial Express (India)

More illuminating reporting about digital ad fraud from Adalytics. While many advertisers say they aren't concerned with MFAs, this analysis is proof positive that it's a widely pervasive issue. Demanding #transparency is the only way to be sure of where your campaigns are running and protect your investment from wasteful - and potentially harmful - ad environments. #demandtransparency #VAB

The impact of ad fraud is enormous, diverting billions of advertising dollars into the pockets of fraudsters. It's not just about the financial loss, either. Ad fraud damages brands, skews data, reduces consumer trust and, ultimately, diminishes campaign ROI. But in this challenging landscape, telco-verified IDs are having a major impact. These IDs can accurately verify real humans, ensuring your ad spend is used effectively and your brand reputation remains unscathed. Read more in Novatiq’s latest blog post - [https://lnkd.in/e2CTc6Dy] #adfraud #programmaticadvertising #advertising #ads #adverisers

This is scary stuff marketers!!! Do you really know where your programmatic ads are ending up? Are humans actually seeing what you are paying for? The Association of National Advertisers and Bill Duggan published its fraud study last year to reveal that $22Bil of the $88Bil programmatic market was fraud related ads. That’s means that nearly 30% of your spend is wasted and served to a bot or MFA site where there is no value or humans. It’s about time clients start demanding clarity and transparency from Media partners and agencies to get this cleaned up. One company actually taking on the industry is Blockboard and is doing their part to avoid the fraud. #fraudsucks #fraudisawaste