According to Juniper Research, Fraud in the digital ad industry costs advertisers around $51 million per day.
With the US programmatic display ad spend expected to top $133 billion by 2023, IAB Tech Lab aims at publishing guidelines that will focus on the supply-chain framework. Similarly, the guide aims to target loopholes from previous protocols such as ads.txt. Along with the guidelines, the Association of National Advertisers is also working to award a contract for a digital supply chain audit in the near future.
IAB Tech Lab has earlier developed protocols such as app-ads.txt, sellers.json, ads.cert and SupplyChain Object to close loopholes within its ads.txt framework. These protocols enable publishers and marketers to cross-reference their ad buys and highlight inconsistencies.
Introduced in 2017, ads.txt is intended to curtail “domain spoofing”. The term refers to the mislabelling of ad inventory by bad actors, in order to increase profits. While protocols like app-ads.txt and sellers.json can help counter digital ad fraud, these deterrents also require a certain level of investment and upkeep. With cash-strapped companies falling short of keeping files up to date, bad actors often take advantage of inadvertent missteps.
[4 minute read]
