Dive Brief:
- Two programmatic platforms, DataXu and TubeMogul, are offering advertisers refunds when campaigns are hit with a certain threshold of ad fraud. That limit is 3% for DataXu, and less than 3% for TubeMogul.
- Offering marketers money back on ad budgets that were stolen due to fraudulent digital ads should ease some concerns about the issue.
- It should also serve to show that programmatic platforms understand how large a problem ad fraud is and how it directly affects the way the ad tech business is perceived.
Dive Insight:
Last year Steve Sullivan, vp of partner success at Index Exchange, told Marketing Dive the key to solving the ad fraud issue was transparency, and the refund policy from two programmatic platforms indicate that concept is reaching the industry at a level where it counts.
Ad Age reported that in one instance, Lexus dealers became so concerned about the potential for ad fraud that they asked to have their ad budgets put to TV and outdoor advertising instead of digital.
Monica Mellier, group media director at the agency Team One, told Ad Age, "We had a lot of conversations about how we could prove to [Lexus] that what we were buying was reaching real people. They were definitely concerned because they never had to deal with bots in traditional mediums like TV or magazine. The idea that a nonhuman could be engaging and causing this damage was futuristic or sci-fi to them."
In late 2014, when DataXu, Team One's programmatic vendor, began offering refunds, Mellier said Lexus' fears were calmed.
DataXu and TubeMogul’s response to ad fraud is a promising move.
As Index Exchange’s Sullivan told Marketing Dive, “The industry has to make it a priority to mitigate these bad actors. Marketers are increasing their digital advertising spend every year, which is only giving more financial incentive to fraudsters. It will not stop until the industry proactively stops them on every side.”