Ad exchanges enable digital marketers to purchase advertisements quickly and easily across a wide range of sites. It would have been a truly efficient and effective way of buying or selling ads if not for certain risks that come with it, such as ad fraud.
Research and advisory company Forrester found that 69% of companies spending $1 million per month on ads lose 20% of their budget to ad fraud. Fortunately, simply choosing the correct ad marketplace can potentially solve these fraud problems. In this article, we’ll share some of the techniques you can use to ensure you’re working with the right ad exchange network.
Transparency
Many advertisers prefer to buy inventory in ad exchanges because of the convenience. But some shady ad exchanges might not fully disclose the total purchase costs. Hidden fees and high margins can eat up a significant part of your budget.
Discuss fees and service rates with an ad exchange before committing. Make sure you’re talking about the same amount, and no other fees will be added after that. Ask them to explain their payment structure by asking questions like:
- Will the payment structure be postpaid or prepaid?
- If it’s postpaid, are they using the net 30 or net 60 model?
- Will the contract include some kind of revenue sharing?
Compliance with IAB Standards
In programmatic advertising, fake supplies are the most common type of ad fraud. A popular modus operandi of scammers is to misrepresent out-stream video ad slots as in-stream video slots.
When choosing an ad exchange, check if they comply with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) standards. Ad exchanges that do have a higher chance of protecting their clients from fraud. The IAB usually does this in two ways:
- Ads.txt — a text file placed by publishers on their websites to show a list of authorized vendors that are allowed to sell their inventory
- sellers.json — is similar to ads.tx but instead allows ad buyers to check direct sellers, traffic resellers, and inventory source
Anti-Fraud Capabilities
Ad exchanges have a network of connectors and resellers. This makes the delivery of ads efficient but also prone to fraud. Ads can get misrepresented, non-safe creatives could end up in reputable sites, and clicks can get misattributed.
When you choose to work with an ad exchange, check their anti-fraud features and capabilities. Do they have validators that assess creatives before these reach publishers? Are bid requests checked before they are auctioned off?
Reliable ad exchanges have several traffic quality partnerships that detect and validate suspicious activity. A good ad exchange also has prebid blocklists. It is a collection of compromised platforms, parties, and vendors. This allows ad exchanges to detect and stop any fraud from entering the auction.
Reliable Data Centers
Ad exchange data servers should be capable of handling a heavy load of two million Queries Per Second and support popular connections like RTB endpoints, JS tags, and VAST tags. Ad exchanges should also have a reliable network of data centers to support proper ad serving, lower page latency, and prevent discrepancies.
Make sure to discuss the server capabilities and data centers with your chosen ad exchange to find ways to fully maximize their services and prevent negative end-user content experiences.
New ID Solutions
With Google Chrome eventually taking down third-party cookies, digital advertisers will be losing an important part of user tracking, attribution, and performance monitoring.
Currently, the potential solution lies with single-sign-on (SSO). It enables marketers to track users without compromising their privacy through user login records on websites. A good ad exchange should offer similar ID solutions that will help run your ad campaigns after Chrome’s support for third-party cookies ends.
Benefiting from an Ad Exchange
Ad exchanges have become an integral part of modern media trading. Despite its imperfection, a good, carefully chosen ad exchange is highly beneficial to advertisers and publishers.
Aniview helps connect the industry’s prestigious publishers with global advertisers. With Aniview’s Video Ad Marketplace, you can optimize your yield and have access to real-time data to help you properly utilize your ad budget.
If you are looking for a reliable video ad marketplace, contact us today. We provide a demo of how our video ad marketplace and technologies can work for you.
