#adfraudsoftware

DCB fraud risks have grown over the years. It has not evolved into a structural challenge reshaping how telecom operators monetize mobile subscribers across Africa and beyond. This direct carrier billing fraud playbook by mFilterIt is built from the field: real deployments, live transaction data, and direct observation of how mobile billing fraud has evolved across three distinct generations, from device-level automation to behavioral mimicry that defeats every rule-based system built against it.

India has witnessed an exponential rise in smartphone usage, internet penetration, which has furthered the growth of the Indian Digital Advertising ecosystem. Studies estimate that there were 624 million Internet users in India by January 2021 and the number of mobile connections was equivalent to 79% of the total population (1.39 billion is the current population).

The growth in internet adoption, smartphone usage, and the ongoing Covid19 pandemic has impelled businesses to leverage digital marketing to reach their customers directly on their mobile devices.

This growth, however, comes with its own set of challenges as the internet has become a playground for fraudsters MMA India Report states that 62% of all digital ad fraud occurs on mobile advertising, the most dominant type of digital advertising in India. Increased mobile adoption opens Pandora’s box of opportunities for digital criminals. Thus, one of the many reasons to develop an understanding of the different types of mobile ad fraud and how to detect them across industries.

The ever-evolving ecosystem of mobile devices allows advertisers to deploy ads in varied formats. This provides the fraudsters with a number of ways in which they can trick their victims: from fake installs to attribution manipulation.

Let us have a look at the different types of ad fraud in mobile advertising which are fairly common across industries.

Impression validation is as crucial as validation of other hard key performance metrics. It helps advertisers get transparency at the beginning stage of the ad campaign and help them stop it at the root before it impacts the entire campaign, especially metrics like installs and events (like subscription, or first transaction) where the cost is higher.  

Let’s understand in detail how impression fraud validation is essential for app marketers and how MMP’s are hiding the actual impact of fraudulent impressions.  

Mobile Measurement platforms or MMPs often play a significant role in app marketing. They help the advertisers track the last click attribution of their ad campaigns and track app performance. There are a few MMPs who also provide ad fraud verification solutions bundled with their attribution services. However, ad verification by MMPs have their own limitations.  

The most effective way for advertisers to combat mobile ad fraud is by using independent third-party validators—an unbiased, external layer of protection. Validate the fake traffic and interactions associated with an ad campaign. mFilterIt offers a comprehensive ad fraud detection system powered by advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. It can identify suspicious patterns with deterministic, heuristic, and behavioral checks.  

It enables advertisers to identify and block fraudulent activities before they drain their budgets and ensure that only genuine traffic is counted, reducing the risk of fraudulent interactions, like click fraud, bots, and fake impressions. As an essential step in the fight against ad fraud and invalid traffic, it is important to validate before advertisers, ad networks and agencies collaborate with publishers. 

Monitor and verify each install or click with Mobile ad fraud detection solutions. It helps in identifying APK fraud, referral fraud, and protects organic traffic from being stolen. Proactive fraud prevention using data-driven strategies preserves the integrity of mobile advertising campaigns and ensures it delivers true value. 

Valid8's Web Fraud is a cutting-edge SaaS solution designed to safeguard your digital advertising campaigns and websites from the detrimental effects of invalid traffic and fake clicks. With its real-time protection powered by advanced AI and machine learning technology, Valid8 automatically blocks invalid traffic on platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads, ensuring that your ad budget is utilized effectively. Its sophisticated algorithms not only eliminate bot traffic but also defend against competitor tactics that might drain your budget or undermine your market position. The platform offers granular control over your campaigns through customizable protection settings and provides actionable insights via a user-friendly dashboard. This allows you to monitor ad performance, refine your targeting and bidding strategies, and optimize your ad creatives for better results. With Valid8, you gain comprehensive protection, verification, and optimization capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of your digital advertising investments.

Connected TV (CTV) ads have emerged as a powerful digital advertising medium for brands looking to engage in a more targeted and interactive manner. As CTV viewing time has doubled over the last four years, CTV ad spending is also projected to reach $27.47 billion. 

Some of the popular CTV platforms for advertising are Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, etc. The radical shift in viewership from traditional TV to streaming TV has opened this great opportunity. However, the opportunity is coupled with threats and challenges to ensure the integrity of ad traffic. Advertisers spending on CTV ads risk wasting precious ad budgets on illegitimate views and impressions, ultimately diminishing their return on investment (ROI).  

According to a recent study, in the second quarter of 2024, 19.4% of programmatic ad traffic to CTVs was invalid worldwide. To protect CTV ad campaigns, automation with advanced processes and AI ML-powered solutions is necessary.  

To stay on top of your digital marketing game, safeguarding your programmatic ad campaigns from fraud is paramount. Ad fraud can drain your budget, distort your performance metrics, and threaten your brand’s reputation.

Protects Your Digital Ad Campaigns

Advertisers need comprehensive protection against fraudulent activities. Here’s how it ensures the integrity and effectiveness of your programmatic advertising:

Identification and Filtering of Invalid TrafficMeticulously analyzes traffic to identify and filter out invalid clicks and bot activities. This ensures that your ads are seen by real people, enhancing engagement and conversion rates.

Automated BlacklistingBy automating the blacklisting of suspicious traffic sources, continuously cleanses your traffic, prevent fraudulent sources from inflating your ad spend.

Enhanced TransparencyAccuracy in measurement and weeding out invalid or fraudulent traffic build trust and transparency allowing for more informed decision-making and improved ROI on ad spends.

Considering that ad fraud will cost marketers $ 172 billion by 2028, according to Statista Reports, tackling the fraud becomes crucial to safeguarding advertising investments. 

The digital advertising space is continuously in flux, opening new avenues through which businesses can reach their target audiences. These opportunities also bear the ever-growing threat of ad fraud as one of the biggest challenges facing advertisers today.  

Ad Fraud is omnipresent across Walled Gardens, direct buying platforms, affiliates, and programmatic channels. It brings a financial drain while weakening the efficiency of advertising campaigns.  

AI-driven post-bid solutions must be deployed across campaigns to tackle this problem. They should be backed by ML algorithms and big data analytics. According to mFilterIt reports, average fraud is to the tune of 15-25% depending on the channel and tools help bring ROI efficiencies via automated active blacklisting.