Ad fraud is becoming an increasing concern for marketers online. With the rise of click farms, hidden ads, and botnets, advertisers demand more transparency from their advertising partners than ever before.

Consumer concerns over privacy have led to a souring of the positive relationship they once had with their favorite brands. Confidence in an ad-supported internet is at an all-time low.

With the delicate ecosystem of internet advertising and online client-marketer relationship on the line, a real solution needs to be found and implemented quickly to avoid a complete breakdown of trust. Could the answer lie in ad verification services? Could finding a good proxy service provider help reduce exposure? What steps can marketers take to detect and avoid ad fraud?

What exactly is ad fraud, and how can it be detected?

In essence, ad fraud is a blanket term for fake clicks, traffic, and impressions within the online advertising space. Fraudsters use many methods to simulate traffic on their sites. They rely on fooling the system and cashing in on pay-per-click and impression-based advertising. 

Some of these fraudulent advertising methods are harder to detect than others. Verifying advertising using a proxy service is one reliable way to ensure that these methods are detected and avoided. A well-known and trusted proxy service provider, like this one, is an essential role player in the setup of these proxy networks.

How does ad fraud work?

There are many different ways that hackers use to defraud advertisers. Each one is designed to tackle a different marketing method:

Fake traffic

A website’s visitor traffic numbers are jacked up using a bot. This makes advertising on that page more expensive.

Click fraud

This technique involves using scripts and bots to generate ad clicks, and it’s by far the most damaging to an advertising budget. Fraudsters using this method are known to set up a farm of fake profiles and accounts, making it look like actual people are doing the ad engagement.

Impression laundering

This method involves pop-up ads. These ads are either reduced to mere pixels, rendered behind the main page or are hidden. As they are technically still being displayed, they are still counted and charged as an impression.

What is being done to counteract ad fraud?

As clever as the ad fraudsters are, marketers need to be just as creative to avoid them. In the battle between advertisers and fake ad sellers, it is a race to see which can develop new and ingenious ways to stay ahead of the other. 

This war of internet advertisers vs. hackers has given rise to specialist ad verification companies. These companies check ads and verify placement sites. They have developed techniques that modify ads to thwart bot clicks. They are always looking for opportunities to extinguish ad fraud.

As a defense, Hackers have learned to identify and ban the IP addresses of these verification agencies. This renders their verification services useless because they can no longer access the hacker’s site. This niche is where residential proxies have found their purpose in the fight against ad fraud.

How are proxy IPs useful against ad fraud?

An ad verification service can use a residential proxy to hide their identity by accessing a rotating pool of millions of IP addresses. This lets them continue running their verification scripts, verifying ad placement, and checking ads unhindered by network blocking on suspected fraudulent sites. Because their IP address is changing, hackers cannot block their IP and keep them from returning to the site.

Ad verification also covers localization. When launching a multifaceted, multilingual ad campaign, their advertising plans need to run smoothly. Part of this is making sure that their ads are being shown where they should be.

If an advertiser has an international ad campaign running, they need to be assured that they are receiving the service that they are paying for. They need to know that their ad is being appropriately featured. 

Employing people on the ground in each country is not feasible, and hiring services locally in each location to perform manual checks is costly and time-consuming. 

Using a residential proxy to change their IP can streamline this process, allowing them to view and verify their ad from anywhere in the world.

Will ad fraud ever stop?

As technology advances and ad fraud detection techniques evolve, there is hope that ad buyers’ faith in online advertising will be restored. But as long as there is an opportunity to make money online, there will be those looking to exploit the system and take rather than earn their share. 

Savvy online marketers will use every tool available to keep themselves and their advertising budgets safe. Using a well-regarded, trustworthy proxy service provider, and employing a renowned ad verification company, is an excellent start in the fight against internet ad fraud.