In today’s world, direct to publisher relationships in online advertising is an important key to guaranteeing quality ads with the assistance of experienced directors. However, the Internet allows businesses to invest in digital marketing campaigns without human assistance. This has a dangerous and dark side, with the prominence of online scams. US cybersecurity company WhiteOps recently uncovered the largest online advertising scam ever operating in Russia. The scam was making between $2.6 million and $5.2 million a day – almost four times more than what the New York Times earns from advertising. This should serve as a warning for businesses that entrust their information and money in campaigns. Direct to publisher relationships are missing and most likely your ad will never be seen. Hundreds of servers in the US and Netherlands created nonhuman or “bot” traffic that viewed local webpages featuring the video advertisements.
WhiteOps named the Russian fraud Methbot. The bot farm has already acquired almost 60,000 IP addresses and is collecting $3 million a day from unsuspecting customers. The frauds created fake browser sessions impersonating human Internet users. By creating and writing their own browser, they were able to imitate various human features. Cookies were inserted to imitate surfing histories and allowing for “targeted” advertising, imitated clicking and cursor movements, and even paused and restarted videos randomly to pretend someone was actually watching them. They were even able to detect anti-fraud software by switching behaviors that would go undetected by the software.
They were able to capture so many customers by imitating thousands of legitimate websites like Facebook and cnn.com. Posing as legitimate and trusted media outlets allowed the frauds to charge advertisers higher rates for ad impressions. The average CPM according to WhiteOps was $13, which is twice as much as Facebook’s. This scam is still running because no one, even WhiteOps, can defeat the software. However, the many IP addresses used were released so ad exchange operators can easily block them.
The reason why Methbot was able to pull off this fraud scheme is because of the structure of the online advertisement industry. Businesses that buy online advertising usually do not deal directly with the people behind the websites that offer it. Programmatic advertising accounts for almost two-thirds of the US digital and video advertising spending. Buyers and sellers exchange on a digital platform where inventory is instantly sold. Direct to publisher relationships are nonexistent.
The Association of National Advertisers predicts that $7.2 billion will be lost globally in this upcoming year due to online advertising fraud. This accounts for 10% of the projected digital advertising spend. Although this does not delegitimize the industry overall, it is shocking enough to warn and worry the media and businesses. Instead of wasting money on ads that no one will ever see, businesses should turn to trusted companies that provide one-on-one contact that guarantee results that you can see from experts you have made a connection with. Here at OnCampus, we provide this direct to publisher relationship needed to provide businesses with quality ad content. For more information, contact us at OnCampus Advertising for assistance with your advertising needs to college students.
