The Bot Baseline Fraud in Digital Advertising

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FEAR IS THE UNSPOKEN OBSTACLEThe ecosystem described in this report is complex. There are winners and losers inadvertising fraud today, and the scoreboard clearly is tilted in the wrong direction.On one side, the winners are raking in billions of dollars, much of which fundscybercriminal activities by bot suppliers who have no incentive to change theirbehavior. Far behind in the digital advertising game are advertisers who want to offergreat products to the right customers, agencies who want their media plans to reachthe appropriate targets, publishers who want to support the content on their sitesthrough pertinent advertising, and the advertising technology community who wantto provide an innovative infrastructure and marketplace for online advertising.Also losing big are consumers, who are the real reason the digital ad industry existsand who have been turned into unwitting accomplices in vast networks of botnets.The common reaction to the entire issue of fraud is fear. Fear leads to avoidance,which is just what the bad guys want. No one wants to look unaware, unscrupulous,or negligent enough to “allow” this kind of activity to take place.The truth is: fraud is everywhere. No one is immune. Only by emancipating your peopleand partners from that fear can we get the cooperation needed to address this issueeffectively.Bot fraud is a new type of attack. Advertisers, agencies, and publishers must learnand use new concepts to understand the bot fraud threat that has emerged over thepast few years. Advertisers, and all industry participants, can and must take action.Some actions can be taken unilaterally; others must be done in partnership with afraud detection partner. The following pages provide an action plan for thestakeholders in the industry to combat fraud in digital advertising.46
Action Plan for All StakeholdersCreate allies, not adversaries, in the fightagainst bot fraudBot fraud affects many suppliers in the digital advertising supply chain beforeit reaches the advertiser. Advertisers, agencies, and suppliers must all workcooperatively to reduce and eliminate bot fraud in the supply chain. Our call toaction is for the key industry players to work both collaboratively and individuallyto substantially reduce bot fraud.Manage the emotions of ad fraud discussionsDo not assume that bot fraud in your campaigns indicates an agency or publisheris deficient or bad. Remember, it’s likely that your media seller is a victim of thebotnet operators, not the cause.Authorize and approve third-party trafficvalidation technologyThis study was not deployed across all participants’ placements, partly due toagency and publisher policies. Some agencies and publishers did not permit themonitoring software in certain placements (see Appendix B: Constraints andLimitations, page 55).While Taking ActionsAgainst Bot Traffic,Communicate AboutBots Effectively:Within your organization, use languagethat accurately communicates the botfraud problem.Add bot-fraud discussion time to allmedia buy conversations internallyand externally.Adopt and use terms that correctlyidentify threats and real adversarieswhile preserving allies and building analliance against fraud.To effectively combat bots in their media buys, advertisers must be able to deploymonitoring tools. Publishers and agencies must enable the deployment of thesemonitoring tools. Set policy and procedures to enable advertisers to deploy botdetection and domain detection software to their ad buys.Support the Trustworthy Accountability GroupThe IAB, 4A’s, and the ANA announced in early November the creation of theTrustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a joint marketing-media industryprogram designed to eradicate digital advertising fraud, malware, ad-supportedpiracy, and other deficiencies in the digital communications supply chain. Allvendors should comply with TAG’s quality assurance guidelines.47
Page 1 and 2: The Bot Baseline:Fraud in DigitalAd
Page 3 and 4: Special Thanks to the FollowingANA
Page 5 and 6: ABOUT THE STUDY
Page 7 and 8: BOTS ARE EVERYWHERE...BUT NOT IN EQ
Page 9 and 10: HOW WE USED THE DATAThis study is a
Page 11 and 12: BOTS WERE IN EVERY KINDOF CAMPAIGN
Page 13 and 14: BOT FRAUD VARIES OVER TIMENot all b
Page 15 and 16: BOT TRAFFIC VARIES BY DOMAIN CATEGO
Page 17 and 18: SOURCING TRAFFIC INCREASESBOT LEVEL
Page 19 and 20: BOTS GET INTO PREMIUM BUYSSignifica
Page 21 and 22: TO REDUCE BOTS IN PREMIUM CAMPAIGNS
Page 23 and 24: BOTS ARE BUILT TO FOOL ALL STAKEHOL
Page 25 and 26: ADWARE: NOT ALL ATTACKS ARE THE SAM
Page 27 and 28: BOTNET CONTROLLERS HIJACK EVERYDAYU
Page 29 and 30: BOTS FAKED ALL OF THE ENGAGEMENT AN
Page 31 and 32: BOTS ARE GETTING TARGETED AND RETAR
Page 33 and 34: HOW BOTSUPPLIERS GETAWAY WITH IT:EV
Page 35 and 36: BOT SUPPLIERS ACTIVELY DISGUISE BOT
Page 37 and 38: SITES THAT ONLYA BOT COULDLOVE37
Page 39 and 40: BOT SUPPLIERS ARE WATCHING YOUBot t
Page 41 and 42: WHEN PUBLISHERSARE VICTIMS TOO:AD I
Page 43 and 44: AD INJECTIONDEGRADES THEQUALITY OFT
Page 45: BOTNET OPERATORS ARE ALREADYDEFEATI
Page 49 and 50: Action Plan for Buyers(Continued)Ap
Page 51 and 52: Who is your real audience:BOB SMITH
Page 53 and 54: Appendix AGlossary of Terms (Contin
Page 55 and 56: Appendix BConstraints and Limitatio
Page 57: Appendix DIllustrative Terms and Co

The Bot Baseline Fraud in Digital Advertising

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