Why advertising fraud can hurt publishers

Why advertising fraud can hurt publishers

Premium publishers have everything advertisers want: target audiences, high quality content, and a brand-safe environment. They are optional partners and have the highest cost of stocking thousands of people. But these quality publishers are being squeezed by multiple forces: first, the rapid expansion of the advertising platform inventory to the publishers of the cost of thousands of people brought the pressure to reduce prices; second, how to increase the number of audiences, attract more advertising funds is also a challenge for publishers; third, the transfer of advertising to the mobile domain poses a new business challenge.

Rampant advertising fraud has exacerbated the above three-party pressure. For advertisers, advertising platforms have a larger supply of inventory, and they are able to get more affordable inventories. As a result, publishers must lower the cost of thousand people and compete with advertising platforms for price. In theory, the inventory of Publishers and advertising platforms is comparable; in fact, a large part of the publisher's inventory competes with invisible ads or ads viewed by robots. In other words, advertising fraud distorts the supply-and-demand relationship that controls pricing. It forces publishers to lower prices and compete with inventories that do not exist at all.

Declining cost of thousands of people

Advertisers will look for quality editorial content sites as their publishing partner. In addition to new media models (such as BuzzFeed and Vice), the vast majority of high-quality editorial content sites are from traditional print publishers. Although their Internet resources still enjoy the reputation of traditional printing and publishing, but these digital resources often can not meet the requirements of the size of the brand advertisers.

The shortage of high quality inventories, coupled with increasing demand, should have allowed the price of inventories to rise.

However, in the past 20 years, the cost of thousands of people have been falling, advertisers have been addicted to advertising fraud created by the artificial minimum price. Advertising platforms, trading platforms and real-time bidding have brought greater price pressures. The quality of the goods issued in the past is based on the scarcity of advertising; but now, these brands have to compete with the huge advertising platform inventory.

Moving makes things worse.

Even if publishers struggle with price pressures and a growing number of audiences, they still face a bigger shift--40% to 60% of the audience comes from mobile devices, making it hard to make money from mobile-end audiences.

The traditional advertising products that publishers used to sell are specifically for PCs (such as home ads and scalable ads) that do not apply to mobile terminals. Although the screens of mobile devices are getting bigger and larger, for standard computer ads, the mobile end screen is still very small and cannot effectively translate the computer ads into mobile ads. And the lack of cookies on the mobile end makes it very difficult for users to locate and track. And advertisers still think that the mobile end is not much value, which also makes the cost of mobile people continue to be depressed. Meanwhile, social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have developed mobile-first advertising products to attract more advertisers.

Publishers must make money from mobile traffic. So far, they have been forced to make money using ineffective, inexpensive advertising products. Without effective tracking, publishers do not accurately reflect mobile traffic. As more advertisers embrace the move, the traditional web publishers are scrambling for the cheaper "junk" of thousands, while mobile-optimized platforms, such as Snapchat and BuzzFeed, claim to have higher advertising revenues.

What publishers can do

By helping to eliminate the waste caused by advertising fraud, premium publishers can demand a larger share of advertising money. Identifying an advertising fraudster and proving that you are providing an effective advertising impression that can be seen by the audience--this is best for the publisher's benefit.

We have seen advertisers/publishers such as Unilever and Kang, working together to work out how to ensure that the visible exposure reaches 100%. With the disappearance of invisible advertising inventories and false traffic, advertisers and media buyers have a better understanding of the real costs of reaching audiences.

Fortunately, some publishers have called for more aggressive standards. Integral Ad Science A recent study has shown that nearly 40% of publishers say the media Rating Board (Rating Council) has not defined the visible exposure enough. Publishers can combine advertisers to promote higher standards of implementation. Publishers who emphasize transparency will not only differentiate themselves from others, but also help advertisers stop buying questionable advertising stocks at the lowest prices.