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Social media ad scams are on the rise as marketers are estimated to suffer a loss of USD 10.9 billion by the end of this year. In fact, for every USD 3 spent on digital advertising, digital ad fraud accounts for USD 1.
What’s the modus operandi of these scams? Faking ad impressions and inflating the revenues from campaigns. Unfortunately, these frauds are not easily detectable since the target is not a single user.
Here’s a look at the various types of social media ad scams and the steps publishers can take to avoid falling prey to them.
What are the main types of social media ad scams and how do they work?
Pixel stuffing
This is a form of ad placement fraud implemented by shady publishers who want to boost revenues through increased ad traffic. To achieve that, they place one or more ads of standard dimensions (such as 468 x 60) in a 1×1 pixel area. Since the space is extremely minuscule, visitors barely notice it.
Even though it is illegal to place so many ads on a single page like this, the method can be repeated on a loop, resulting in massive traffic and revenue fraud.
App frauds
Fraudsters can design special apps for social media ad scams.
In 2019, tech major Oracle exposed a major mobile ad fraud operation carried out through an app called DrainerBot. The bot was integrated into popular Android apps. Once downloaded, DrainerBot replicated an infected code in the devices that resulted in invisible video ads. While these ads were never really viewed by the users, the app reported to the ad network that legitimate video ads were published on a credible website.
Genuine mobile apps have also come under the scanner for mobile ad fraud schemes. For instance, in 2020, a report revealed that ViVaVideo, a video editing software attempted to initiate premium subscriptions on its own and also delivered invisible ads to create fake clicks. It could have resulted in unauthorized charges of more than USD 27 million if the scam remained undetected.
To avoid falling prey to such spurious apps, use video editors from reputed marketplaces that offer customizable templates to create video ads from scratch.
Bot driven frauds
It is also possible to use bots to generate higher revenues. Such bots can generate fake traffic through several fraudulent practices that mimic genuine human interactions, such as fake web sessions, mouse clicks, and mouse movements.
One of these bots called Methbot used similar practices to ‘watch’ close to 300 million video ads per day on fake websites designed to look like premium ad domains. This operation targeted as many as 6,000 premium domains and helped fraudsters earn millions.
Ad stacking
Ad stacking refers to stacking multiple video ads instead of a single ad placement. Similar to books stacked at a library where the individual pages are never visible, viewers can only see one of the ‘stacked’ ads on top of the other. However, the publisher gets revenue for all the stacked ads.
Background ad activity
In 2019, BuzzFeed reported a fraud involving in-app ads that were hijacked. In this case, the user views a banner ad that appears in a legitimately downloaded app with concealed video ads auto-playing in the background. Even though such ads make no real impressions, the fraudsters can still charge per view.
How do social media ad scams hurt publishers?
Trust between advertisers and publishers is one of the cornerstones of the digital ad industry. Advertisers want publishers to place the ads carefully within relevant content so that it is viewed by the right demographic of audience. Video ad frauds damage the trust as the target audience doesn’t view the ads, and the results are a sham. This erodes confidence on the buy-side.
What can the social media advertising industry do to combat fraudulent practices?
There isn’t a magic pill to prevent social media ad scams from happening at all. Even the most cautious publishers who sell ads on ‘private ad exchanges’ for brand-consistent advertising can be victims.
The good news — it is possible to minimize the occurrence. You need to demand full transparency from both the ad platforms and agency. You should also examine analytics closely to stay away from vanity metrics, and keep benchmarking your advertising efforts and the actual ROI on a daily basis.
Sophisticated technology and artificial intelligence will also play an essential role in combating social media ad scams in the future. For instance, blockchain technology can help you eliminate the middlemen who may pitch reselling schemes. But the adoption of this technology is sluggish given that blockchain is slow — digital advertising transactions need a response interval of 10 millisecond whereas the fastest blockchain currently takes 1.5 seconds.
Final Words
Unchecked ad scams can completely throttle social media advertising efforts. Learning about video frauds is the best way to tackle the problem head-on.
Lastly, commit to fighting fraud in the industry by joining the relevant anti-fraud working committees in your country.
Saki Tanaka
Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a video editing platform where editors can simply open a web browser and create a professional-looking video in minutes. How? Clipchamp fast-forwards through complicated software, expensive equipment and expertise, to focus on what matters – quality features and tools anyone can use.
