Strategic partnerships mitigate ad fraud with great success.

It takes a village to fight digital marketing fraud and ensure data integrity. Fraudsters are smart. They leverage technology to become even smarter and make a lot of money at digital marketers’ expense, wasting their ad spend.

Marketers know this, but fighting fraud is not their specialty, nor should it be. That’s why they need effective, comprehensive solutions to combat ad fraud, make real-time decisions, and ensure data integrity. There are so many providers to choose from; unfortunately, no solution can do it all. That’s why Anura strategically partners and integrates with other leading providers to help fight ad fraud and provide accurate data, all while protecting marketers and consumers.

We’re proud to announce our most recent partnership with Webbula, an industry leader in customer data and email verification services. Our combined efforts to help advertisers and publishers fight ad fraud make their marketing campaigns more successful. Together, we protect brand reputation and optimize advertising spend by ensuring the delivery of authentic traffic and reliable data.

Let’s explore what this means for marketers and publishers, why one solution isn’t enough, and why accuracy matters.

Anura CEO Rich Kahn and Tim Hartley, VP of Business Development of Webbula, discuss the accuracy advantage. Watch here.

Ad Fraud and Compliance Are Getting More Complex

Ad fraud is a big problem that just keeps getting bigger: we saw advertisers lost as much as $125 billion globally last year. That’s the big picture; what it means for each advertiser is that as much as 25% of their advertising budget is wasted.

In addition to rising fraud comes more regulations about generating leads. It’s a double whammy of sorts. One-to-one consent will likely bring in fewer, more expensive leads. Fraudsters chase the money, so if they think they will be paid more for a lead, they will do their best to get around any and all safeguards publishers and advertisers have in place. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have a formidable team fighting for you, identifying and blocking fraudsters, and verifying that consumer data is real.

A Multi-Faceted Problem Requires a Multi-Faceted Solution

To understand all the complexities of ad fraud and compliance, let’s look at all the moving parts.

1. Invalid traffic. Ad fraud begins with invalid traffic. A lot of software solutions claim to stop invalid traffic, but most only address general invalid traffic (GIVT), non-human but mostly harmless traffic that, among other things, helps your website and content be found.

   The most challenging fraudulent traffic to detect is sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT), which includes advanced bots that mimic human behavior and real humans who have no genuine interest in your products or services, known as human fraud farms.

2. Fake leads, fake consent. SIVT that isn’t identified and blocked can turn into fake leads. Forms can be completed with real contact information likely stolen in a data breach. This leads your contact center agents and sales reps to waste time reaching out to consumers who never asked to be contacted and likely won’t answer the call. What’s more, fake leads can’t provide consent and that can lead to even bigger problems.
3. False positives. While technically not a type of ad fraud, a missed opportunity is a lost opportunity, and false positives, where real visitors are identified as fraudulent, are lost opportunities. By turning them away, businesses not only lose that chance but will most likely lose future opportunities to meet that consumer’s needs.
4. Real people, wrong contact information. A real human with real interest may have completed a form, but as the saying goes, to err is human, and now you have an incorrect email address. It could be intentional, but it could also be a simple mistake, especially if somebody completed the form on a mobile device. Either way, Webbula has identified a shockingly significant amount of data—as much as 30%— that is often entered wrong.

These are problems that the integrated approach of the Anura-Webbula partnership can address head-on.

Anura leverages advanced algorithms and machine learning, along with human experience and expertise, to identify and stop both GIVT and SIVT and fraudulent activities in real time from any traffic channel. Our ad fraud detection prevents fake leads on the front end, improves campaign performance, and protects your brand. What’s more, Anura detects fraud with 99.999% accuracy, meaning virtually no false positives.

Webbula verifies consumer data, ensuring that the data is accurate and belongs to the individual whose information is provided on the form. This is essential to the success of marketing campaigns, preventing marketers from wasting money on leads with inaccurate information.

To combat digital ad fraud the advertising industry benefits from fostering successful partnerships like the one between Anura and Webbula. This strategic alliance exemplifies the power of collaboration in tackling this pervasive issue.

Why Are Accuracy and Data Integrity So Important?

We’ve discussed some of the problems with digital advertising, including how they can lead to ad fraud that costs money, time, and brand reputation. Left unaddressed, these problems can lead to an even bigger problem: TCPA violations.
 
Fraudulent traffic leads to fake leads. In the best-case scenario, you only waste money buying the fake lead and time chasing down the contact. However, if a consumer answers the phone, you’ve also opened yourself up to that bigger problem we mentioned earlier. Remember, fake leads can’t provide consent, so by contacting the consumer, you just committed a TCPA violation, subject to hefty fines and a potential lawsuit. This is an expense most businesses can’t afford.
 
Marketers specialize in marketing: identifying their target audience and creating campaigns to drive awareness, generate leads, and grow revenue. They can’t be expected to add fraud detection, data integrity, and compliance to their plates. They need comprehensive solutions that work to prevent ad fraud. That’s why Anura is excited to partner with Webbula and why we will continue to collaborate with partners and industry associations to help clients effectively fight ad fraud and deliver positive, compliant results for the long term.
 
Interested in equipping your clients with a comprehensive fraud-fighting solution? Apply to become an Anura partner!