Many services have sprung up to help detect and mitigate ad fraud from bad actors and bots. In addition to this blacklisting methodology, advertisers should consider using human whitelisting as a methodology too.

1. Augustine Fou- 1 -
Dr. Augustine Fou
http://linkd.in/augustinefou
October 2013
Blacklisting vs
Whitelisting

2. Augustine Fou- 2 -
480 billion
display ad impressions /mo
Ad Waste from Fraud
29%
confirmed bot traffic
$1 - $3.50
cost per thousand
$2-6 billion
wasted ad spend (annualized)
Display Ad Fraud
20.1 billion
video ad impressions /mo
40%
estimated fake views
~$10
cost per thousand
$1 billion
wasted ad spend (annualized)
Video Ad Fraud
Source: Vindico, 2013Source: Solve Media 2013

3. Augustine Fou- 3 -
480B Display Ads /mo
480 billion display ads per month
(1,439 billion display ads per quarter)
Source: comeScore Report Feb 2013

4. Augustine Fou- 4 -
Percent of Traffic From Bots
Augustine Fou- 4 -
Source: Solve Media via Marketing Charts September 12, 2013

5. Augustine Fou- 5 -
20B Video Ads / mo
20.1 billion video ads per month
Source: comScore June 2013 Video Ads Report

6. Augustine Fou- 6 -
“40% of video ad views
are fraud” – Matt Timothy
Source: Vindico, 2013

7. Augustine Fou- 7 -
http://www.turn.com/sites/default/files/
docs/GlobalDigitalAudReport_FF2.pdf
Video Ad CPM vs Display Ad CPM
Source: Turn via Marketing Charts April 17, 2013
Video CPM: ~$10
Display CPM: ~$1

8. Augustine Fou- 8 -
“Blacklisting fraudulent websites is
important, but bad guys easily stay one step
ahead by creating thousands of new sites
using algorithms. It also doesn‟t solve the
„fake traffic‟ issue now plaguing display
and video ad impressions.”
-- Dr. Augustine Fou

9. Augustine Fou- 9 -
Industry Initiatives
Solve Media
Using CAPTCHAs to detect
humans versus bots.
Global Bot Traffic on Pace to
Waste Up to $9.5 billion in 2013
Ad Budgets. Sep 2013
Spider.io
Nielsen/IAB
Algo detection of bot-like
activity and other malware.
Botnet Costing Display
Advertisers $6 Million per
month. Feb 2013
Industry working group to
define ad viewability.
Viewable rates (of display
ads) ranged from 14% to
79%.
IntegralAds (AdSafe)
Verify ad placement against
blacklist of known fraudulent
websites.
Viewable rates (of display ads)
ranged from 14% to 79%.
DoubleVerify
Ad placement, behavioral
compliance, fraud
detection
PageFair
Ad blocking detection
WhiteOps
Realtime bot detection
algorithms

10. Augustine Fou- 10 -
Forms of Ad Waste
I didn’t get what I paid for:
• 10% never get loaded into the browser – Moat
• 31% are never “in-view” (fraud or not) – comScore
• 20-80% are off demo target (depending on density) – Nielsen
• 29% are served to bots – Solve Media
• 20-40% are over frequency (bots or not) – Audience Science
• 5-30% are served outside your market geography – comScore
• 10% (est.) Dwell time < 1 second – SWAG
• 5% Overzealous Ad Verification – SWAG
• 20% Video: Autoplay, Sound off, Below the fold – TubeMogul
Net using average values and statistical overlap: 87% wasted
Source: Ted McConnell, Brand Innovators Summit

11. Augustine Fou- 11 -
“oh, don‟t worry… it (fraud)
is already „priced in‟”
Many brands and their media agencies have said they
need the impressions and the fraud is “acceptable”
because it’s already been “priced in” due to CPM
discounts – i.e. lower cost for lower quality.
but …

12. Augustine Fou- 12 -
Blacklisting to Whitelisting
FROM:
Blacklisting fraudulent
websites, detecting
botnets and fake views…
TO
Whitelisting humans who
advertisers actually want
to see their ads
… the ad is still valueless to the
advertiser if no human saw it.

13. Augustine Fou- 13 -
Related Articles
Bad Guys Happily Rob Display Advertisers
By: Augustine Fou, July 23, 2012
Everything Fake (Display Ad Fraud, Search Click Fraud)
By: Augustine Fou, April 2013
Search Kicks Display in Effectiveness
By: Augustine Fou, April 23, 2013
Fake Profiles on Facebook
By: Augustine Fou, July 2013
Polarizing Advertising: Branding vs Performance
By: Augustine Fou, April 9, 2013
Augustine Fou- 13 -

14. Augustine Fou- 14 -
Dr. Augustine Fou – Digital Consigliere
“I advise clients on optimizing
advertising across all channels. Using
insights and fast-feedback loops from
digital, we can not only target brand ads
better, but we can shift towards more
detailed measurement and ROI.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
@acfou
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/augustinefou

15. Augustine Fou- 15 -
APPENDIX

16. Augustine Fou- 16 -
Levels of Unscrupulosity
Legit Pre-Roll Ad
YouTube.com
• does not auto play
• lets users skip the rest of
the ad
FinViz.com
• homepage takeover
• auto plays when page loads
• entire is made to click thru
Autoplay Takeover Ad Bad Actors
[ screen shot ]
(censored)
• multiple ads per page
• autoplay video ads
• ads
• click pops up another
video ad
• ads in hidden iframes
Bad actors use many techniques to inflate video ad play numbers because of CPM model