Productivity of the ads should be a central measure of the usefulness of the ads - which can be directly correlated to ROI for any particular company, any product, in any industry. For example, if an ad is not seen by humans it can never lead to a real purchase of any kind.

1. The ROI Case for
Solving Ad Fraud
Ted McConnell
Dr. Augustine Fou
January 2014
-1-
Augustine Fou

2. “Financial advisors always recommend paying
off credit cards before any other kind of
investing... as a sure way to „earn‟ 18%.
Reducing ad waste due to fraud yields
immediate ROI because your ad spend goes
towards legit sites with human visitors who can
actually convert into paying customers.”
-- Augustine Fou
-2-
Augustine Fou

3. Ad Productivity
Calculations
-3-
Augustine Fou

4. Areas of Optimization
30%
40%
30%
-4-
targeting
improving
optimization
delivery
viewability
bots /not seen by humans
waste
reduction
Augustine Fou

5. Worldwide Bot Traffic
51% suspicious
24-29% confirmed bot
Source: Solve Media via Marketing Charts September 12, 2013
-5-
Source: Solve Media Dec 31 2013
Augustine Fou

6. 54% Online Ads Aren’t In View
Source: comScore June 2013 via MarketingCharts
-6-
Augustine Fou

7. 23% of Users Use Adblockers
Source: PageFair, August 2013
Average Adblocking Rate
22.7%
-7-
Augustine Fou

8. Users Ignoring Ads
Overall, the study finds that online ads are ignored by the largest share of respondents
(82%), with traditional media ads such as TV ads (37%), radio ads (36%), and
newspaper ads (35%) a fair way behind. Drilling down into the results, some
interesting demographic differences emerge.
Looking first at online ads, the survey indicates that banner ads are ignored by the
largest share of respondents overall (73%), followed by social media ads (62%) and
search engine ads (59%). In each case the propensity to ignore ads rises alongside
age – by a significant degree. Here are some interesting breakdowns:
Compared to 18-34-year-olds, the 65+ crowd is:
50% more likely to count online banner ads among those they ignore the most (87%
vs. 58%);
58% more likely to ignore social media ads (76% vs. 48%); and
53% more likely to ignore search engine ads (72% vs. 47%).
Source: Harris Interactive via MarketingCharts Feb 2014
-8-
Augustine Fou

9. Properly Targeted Impressions
Source: Nielsen, October 2011
25% average
on-target delivery
Case Example
5% properly targeted
-9-
Augustine Fou

10. Low Hanging Fruit
The most immediate, direct impact on ROI comes from reducing waste
25% On-Target Delivery
(Nielsen)
82% Ignored (not relevant)
(Harris Interactive)
54% Not In View (not seen)
(comScore)
23% Ad Blocked (wasn’t shown)
(PageFair)
24 – 29% confirmed bot
(Solve Media)
- 10 -
Augustine Fou

11. Forms of Ad Waste
Source: Ted McConnell, Brand Innovators Summit
I didn’t get what I paid for:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
10% never get loaded into the browser – Moat
31% are never “in-view” (fraud or not) – comScore
20-80% are off demo target (depending on density) – Nielsen
29% are served to bots – Solve Media
20-40% are over frequency (bots or not) – Audience Science
5-30% are served outside your market geography – comScore
10% (est.) Dwell time < 1 second – SWAG
5% Overzealous Ad Verification (didnt get shown) – SWAG
20% Video: Autoplay, Sound off, Below the fold – TubeMogul
Net using average values and statistical overlap:
- 11 -
87% wasted
Augustine Fou

12. Display Ad
Productivity
- 12 -
Augustine Fou

13. Productive Display Ads
Viewable
Human (not bot)
(Solve Media)
71%
x
Human
Viewable
(comScore)
46%
x
77%
Not Adblocked
On-Target
Not AdBlocked
(PageFair)
25%
productive
- 13 -
Augustine Fou

14. Search Ad
Productivity
- 14 -
Augustine Fou

15. Productive Search Ads
Non-Click Fraud
(Adometry)
Global CTR
(Kenshoo)
83%
1.7%
x
1.4%
Search ads
clicked by
humans
Since advertisers only pay for the clicks, this is already
highly cost effective. But the next area of focus should be
the quality of the click – what users do after they click
through to site. Counting clicks perpetuates click fraud.
- 15 -
Augustine Fou

16. Ad Fraud Reduction
Case Study
- 16 -
Augustine Fou

17. Before and After
BEFORE
AFTER
Top 2 “good guys” = 76%
Top 5 “good guys” = 94%
18% of spend shifted from fraudulent websites to good guys
- 17 -
Augustine Fou

18. “If I am only running 10 percent
productive impressions then if I
reduce waste by 10 percent, I
DOUBLE my ROI.”
-- Ted McConnell
- 18 -
Augustine Fou

19. Current Ad Fraud
Countermeasures
- 19 -
Augustine Fou

20. Blacklisting Sites
Value
Exclude sites from
serving your ads
- 20 -
Caveat
For every site excluded,
bad guys put up more
(because they don‟t have
to play by the rules).
Augustine Fou

21. Enforcing Viewability
Value
Caveat
Only pay for ads which
are viewable (i.e. above
the-fold)
Bad guys can defeat
“viewability” by stuffing ads
in hidden layers, all “abovethe-fold”
Source: Spider.io May 2, 2013
- 21 -
Augustine Fou

22. Bot Detection
Value
Caveat
Good guys use algorithms
to detect unusual
behaviors indicative of
bots (rather than humans)
It’s an arms race between
good and bad; bots are more
sophisticated and can fake
mouse movements and keep
cookies.
Source: Spider.io March 2013
- 22 -
Augustine Fou

23. Using CAPTCHAs
Value
Caveat
Captchas deter bots from
filling in forms and stealing
content and cookies.
Some bots can now solve some
captchas, most captchas don’t
protect content pages.
Source: Solve Media Dec 31 2013
- 23 -
“Startup called Vicarious
automatically solves
CAPTCHAs.” Oct 2013
http://bit.ly/1bFo9lZ
Augustine Fou

24. “The above countermeasures are all good, and
advertisers should continue using them. But they are
not enough. If the good guys fight the fight individually,
there is little chance they can overcome the entire
ecosystem of the bad guys. The good guys need to band
together into their own ecosystem and put the bad guys
on a „digital ad fraud equivalent to the National Sex
Offenders Registry‟.”
-- Dr. Augustine Fou
- 24 -
Augustine Fou

25. Subject Matter
Experts
- 25 -
Augustine Fou

26. Dr. Augustine Fou – Technical Forensics
“I advise clients on optimizing
advertising across all channels. One
main area of focus is reducing ad waste
due to fraud – fake impressions, clicks,
leads, and sales – in order to raise ROI.”
FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, HCG (OMNICOM)
MCKINSEY CONSULTANT
CLIENT SIDE / AGENCY SIDE EXPERIENCE
PROFESSOR AND COLUMNIST
ENTREPRENEUR / SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
PHD MATERIALS SCIENCE (MIT '95) AT AGE 23
ClickZ Articles: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-clickz
Slideshares: http://bit.ly/augustine-fou-slideshares
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/augustinefou
- 26 -
@acfou
Augustine Fou

27. Ted McConnell – Digital Consigliere
“My Goals are to drive, and participate
in the process that yields the winning
vision for my clients. I'm a Digital
Marketing Generalist: I've Run large
organizations, been staff to c-level
executives at P&G, hold 4 Patents,
successfully driven change in Marketing
and Advertising practice in P&G and
other companies.”
ADVERTISING RESEARCH FOUNDATION
MANAGER, DIGITAL MARKETING INNOVATION
AdAge Articles: http://adage.com/author/ted-mcconnell/4334
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ted-mcconnell/0/5b5/8a2
- 27 -
Augustine Fou

28. Related Articles
Digital Ad Fraud Briefing
By: Augustine Fou December 2013
Fake YouTube Videos
By: Augustine Fou, December 2013
Ad Fraud Fighting Techniques
By: Augustine Fou October 2013
Fake Linkedin Profiles
By: Augustine Fou, December 2013
How Display Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, May 2013
Fake Facebook Profiles
By: Augustine Fou, Dec 2013
How Click Fraud Works
By: Augustine Fou, November 2013
Fake Twitter Accounts
By: Augustine Fou, August 2013
The Magnitude of Digital Ad Fraud
By: Augustine Fou, November 2013
- 28 -
Augustine Fou

29. APPENDIX
- 29 -
Augustine Fou

30. White Ops Bot Analysis
Source: White Ops
- 30 -
Augustine Fou