Ad fraud has advanced from simple bots to even more advanced levels of faking post-install engagements. This is a challenge since the lack of post-install engagements was the main KPI used to identify fraud up until now.

Kobi Edelstein, Appnext VP of Advertising, sits down with Julia Smith, Director of Communications EMEA at Forensiq, to discuss the state of mobile ad fraud today and what prevention methods are currently available.

Five Takeaways

1. Tell us about Forensiq. What is unique about it?

“Forensiq is the leading full-prevention tool globally. We work with clients in various different guises across mobile, video, desktop, wherever there is fraud, we’re there to catch it. We run a prevention tool, using incredible technology. And data scientists look at anomalies and use our own algorithms to prevent ads appearing in front of fraudulent impressions. So it’s a it’s certainly a battle. We work with major agencies, for example, GroupM. We are their preferred fraud prevention tool. Every two months we’re continually tested against our competitors. Our job is to try and show that we catch more fraud than any of our competitors, and that’s what we continually do.”

2. What do you see as the next trend in ad fraud in general and in mobile?

“Forensiq is the leading full-prevention tool globally. We work with clients in various different guises across mobile, video, desktop, wherever there is fraud, we’re there to catch it. We run a prevention tool, and we use incredible technology and data scientists to look at anomalies. Then they use our own algorithms to prevent ads appearing in front of fraudulent impressions, so it’s a it’s certainly a battle. We work with major agencies, for example, GroupM. We are their preferred fraud prevention tool. Every two months we’re continually tested against our competitors. Our job is to try and show that we catch more fraud than any of our competitors, and that’s what we continually do.”

3. There are so many players trying to set their different definitions of what is ad fraud. Will there be a one-standard definition of what fraud is?

“That’s the ultimate goal: to be under one standardized understanding of what is fraud and how do you combat it. And at the minute, I would say we’re not there yet. We’ve got too many inconsistencies. The good news is there are tools for prevention including Forensiq. We are going through the MRC accreditation. This allows us to have our processes checked to make sure that what we say we do, we actually deliver on. When you expand that accreditation out to all the platforms, the DSPs and the SSPs and anybody in the ecosystem, it ensures that what they say they do is actually what they do.  Some of our competitors, they’ll say it’s fraud. But then say why not? Provide the evidence. And we always provide the data reasons saying this is why we’ve known the highlighted is fraud.

4. What do you think about brand safety and viewability in the mobile ecosystem and mobile apps?

“I suppose within mobile apps, it should be that we can check viewability. We’ve been talking recently about forced viewability. Be wary of this. If somebody says, “it’s a guaranteed viewability” a lot, what’s happening is people are being forced. They can’t move off of the app or from in-game if they’re in-game. Then they get forced to see a video ad, so that’s again going to be highlighted as something that’s not acceptable but other things as well. For example if the app has inappropriate content that should be flanked for the app marketplace, there should be checks done.”

5. Do you have a tip to share?

“Invest in Bitcoin currency. I’ve invested recently. It’s gonna be volatile it’s obviously We’re looking at blockchain currently and the effect blockchain is going to have in the market. There’s a lot to play for within that sector, but that’s gonna be interesting to see.”

Superior Ad Fraud Detection 

We are proud to announce our recent partnership with Forensiq! We sought a solution to protect advertisers from buying fraudulent mobile inventory. Appnext works with 650,000 unique users, 60,000 developers worldwide, serving 7 billion data events a day. We have created a dedicated fraud detection team, working 24/7 to use a self-developed anti-fraud system.

We now analyze traffic in real time, detecting fraudulent publishers after the first few conversions.

Forensiq is being used to detect human-like bots and decline fraudulent conversions as they are one of the few companies to support the mobile world with all accepted ad units. This integration enables us to better combat fraudulent impressions. Using Forensiq solutions allows for the tracking of these threats in real-time, which is key to detecting fraud.

Read more from our App Valley Talks Series.