IAB Australia launches digital ad fraud handbook for marketers and agencies

IAB Australia has launched a Digital Ad Fraud handbook for publishers, marketers, and agencies.  Authored by its Standards and Guidelines Council, with inputs from independent ad fraud researchers and guest contributors, the handbook provides objective guidance, exploring the different forms of ad fraud and making recommendations for best practices.

It also details IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Transparency Standards and Best Practices for the disclosure of ad fraud attacks, as well as addresses the topic of potential ad fraud in CTV.

Ad fraud generally refers to both the unintended delivery of advertising to non-human traffic, as well as any intentional activity or action taken by an individual or group of individuals to deceive or manipulate the digital advertising ecosystem for personal gain or financial benefit. 

This can include a wide range of fraudulent activities, including fake ad impressions, clicks, conversions, or installs, as well as other deceptive practices such as domain spoofing, click spamming, and bot traffic.

Ultimately all these activities result in wastage and lost revenues at best - and at worst directly funds organised crime.

According to Jonas Jaanimagi, IAB Australia tech lead, ad fraud is a well-known issue, which demands relentless scrutiny.

“The issue of ad fraud is not new, and the industry’s focus has traditionally tended to oscillate between complacency and versions of fearmongering generated by enormous and often inferred sums of money being criminally syphoned out of the ecosystem.  We want buyers, tech vendors and sellers alike to take this issue more seriously and get their hands dirtier with the details.  They need to work collaboratively to minimise ad fraud because ultimately it negatively impacts us all,” said Jaanimagi.

IAB Australia standards and guidelines council contributors for the Ad Fraud handbook include Google, Integral Ad Science, DoubleVerify, Pedestrian Group, REA Group, Index Exchange, News Corp Australia, and Yahoo.

Guest contributors included Dr Augustine Fou, Independent Ad Fraud Researcher, FouAnalytics; Lindsay Bender, Head of Product Marketing, HUMAN; and Mathew Ratty, Co-Founder & CEO, Adveritas / TrafficGuard.