In an effort to combat the ongoing specter of ad fraud, tech platforms like TubeMogul have implemented tools to eliminate some of the more prevalent forms of fake traffic, stemming from botnets and fraudulent formats, says TubeMogul's CEO Brett Wilson, in an interview with Beet.TV. Some sites will sell auto-play ads in banner spots, he explains. Also prevalent as a source of fraud are botnets, which are sets of computers or servers that send fake views to legitimate sites. According to industry reports, as much as 36% of web traffic is fake.
Software can minimize the effect of fraud by exposing botnets and also by eliminating smaller banner spots from sales inventory, Wilson says. "The best way to battle ad fraud is to understand it and beware of the tradeoff in ad buys," he says. For instance, don't buy a pre-roll spot for $7. Those type of rates don't exist. TubeMogul has also produced a list of botnet sites to "out" them, and has implemented measures to exclude 25o by 300 banner spots from video buys since those often lead to fraudulent views.
Beet.TV Leadership Event on June 5 in NYC
Wilson will be a speaker at the Beet.TV leadership summit on video fraud. TubeMogul is presenting along with comScore and Innovid.
You can find this post on Beet.TV.