Picture this: you’ve spent weeks fine-tuning your ad campaign, but your ads are showing up next to controversial content, or worse – they’re being clicked by bots. That’s money down the drain. What to do? Ad verification is your shield against advertising waste.

The fraudsters are getting smarter, but so are the tools to stop them. Let’s dive into what’s really happening to your ad budget and how to protect it.

The Current State of Digital Ad Fraud

The numbers are astounding. Digital ad fraud is now siphoning more money annually than credit card fraud. But unlike credit card theft, many businesses don’t even know they’re being hit.

Recent studies paint a rather grim picture. In 2023, 22% of all digital advertising spend in 2023 was attributed to fraud, which is a whopping $84 billion, and this is not the worst news. This number, if a current trend continues, is projected to reach $172 billion by 2028. That’s not just big companies. Small businesses are actually getting hit harder, losing up to 30% of their ad budgets to fraud.

What’s happening right now includes the following:

• Click farms are going high-tech. Remember those rooms full of phones clicking ads? That’s so old school. Today’s click farms use AI to impersonate human behavior flawlessly. They browse through websites, make mice move naturally, and can even fake engagement on your website.
• Fake apps are proliferating. Your mobile ads might be playing in an empty room. Fraudsters are creating apps that run in the background of users’ phones, silently playing video ads that no one sees. In 2022, it was found that 80+ apps were running some form of ad fraud.
• Smart TV scams are growing. With more ad dollars moving to streaming platforms, fraudsters followed. They’re creating fake smart TV apps that claim to show your ads to thousands of viewers. In reality, those apps run on server farms with no human viewers at all.

Why is it getting worse? Three main factors are driving this surge:

• More complex ad tech. The more middlemen between you and your ad placement, the more fraud.
• Smarter fraud tools. Fraudsters are using the same AI tools marketers do. They’re building bots that pass human verification tests and adapt to new security measures.
• Bigger budgets at stake. Digital ad spending hit new records this year. More money means more fraudsters, and they’re targeting businesses of all sizes.

Aside from the immediate loss of money, ad fraud causes:

• Biased marketing data that leads to poor decisions
• Wasted time optimizing campaigns based on fake metrics
• Opportunities lost while budget goes to fraud

Small businesses usually get hurt the most. When you’re running on tight margins, losing 30% of your ad budget to fraud isn’t just inefficient. It can be the difference between profit and loss.

Next, we’ll look at how ad verification tools catch these scams and protect your budget.

Brand Safety: When Good Ads Go to Bad Places

Think your ads only show up where you want them to? Think again. Most business owners don’t even know there’s a problem until someone screenshots their ad in the wrong place, and it goes viral on social media. By then, the damage is done. 

Even major brands like Nike and Disney have found their ads next to content that made their PR teams sweat. Let’s dig into why brand safety matters and how ad verification keeps your brand reputation intact.

Why Bad Placements Happen

Now, numerous companies use ad servers to get maximum results from real-time bidding (RTB). Modern ad server is a sophisticated platform that revolutionizes digital advertising. It efficiently manages, delivers, and tracks millions of ads across the internet in real-time. With advanced targeting capabilities, they help businesses reach their ideal audience at the perfect moment.

Nevertheless, your ads can end up in unexpected places because:

• Website content changes after being approved
• New pages get added to approved domains
• Sites get hacked and injected with problematic content
• Category blocking isn’t granular enough
• Translation issues cause ads to appear on foreign language sites with different meanings

When your ad appears in the wrong place, you’re not just wasting money. You’re:

• Damaging brand trust that took years to build
• Associating your business with content your customers might find offensive
• Potentially facing backlash on social media
• Losing customers who see your brand in questionable contexts

A single screenshot of your ad next to inappropriate content can undo months of careful brand building.

How Ad Verification Protects Your Brand

Modern ad verification tools work like a shield:

1. Pre-bid scanning. They check every potential website before your ad appears, measuring it against your brand safety rules.
2. Content analysis. They don’t just look at website categories – they analyze actual page content, including text, images, and video.
3. Real-time blocking. If a page suddenly changes its content, verification tools can pull your ads instantly.

Pro tip. Keep a record of all placement issues even if you work with an ad server. This data helps refine your targeting and can support refund requests for bad placements.

Setting Up Brand Safety Rules

Start with these basic steps:

• Define your brand safety zones (what topics are absolutely off-limits?)
• Create a whitelist of approved sites
• Set up instant alerts for suspicious placements
• Regular review of placement reports

Remember: You can’t control every website on the internet, but you can control where your ads appear.

Ad Verification Metrics

The following are the main metrics in ad verification based on industry standards:

• Invalid Traffic (IVT). Gauges fraudulent ad traffic, both basic bot activity and sophisticated fraud. Splits into GVIT (General Invalid Traffic – it is basic automated traffic and SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic – it includes advanced fraud methods)
• Viewability. As per Media Rating Council (MRC) standards:
  • Display ads must be 50% visible for 1 second
  • Video ads must be 50% visible for 2 seconds
  • Large display ads (242,500 pixels or larger): 30% visible for 1 second

• Geographic Verification. Checks if ad impressions originate from targeted geographic locations, expected IP ranges, and known data centers vs. real users.
• Brand Safety. Monitors where the ad appears based on page content analysis, site categorization, and blocked keyword lists.

These are the main ad verification metrics you must care of.

The Real Numbers: What Ad Fraud Costs Your Business

Let’s talk money. Not just big numbers that make headlines, but what ad fraud actually costs your business every day. We’ll break down the real costs – both obvious and hidden – and show you what verification is worth.

Breaking Down the Losses

Take a typical $10,000 monthly ad budget. Without verification, here’s what usually happens:

• $2,000-$3,000 lost to bot traffic
• $1,000-$1,500 wasted on invisible ads
• $500-$1,000 spent on wrong placements
• Total waste: $3,500-$5,500 monthly

That’s not counting the hours your team spends optimizing campaigns based on false data.

Hidden Costs You’re Paying

The direct losses are just the start. Here’s what fraud really costs.

Bad business decisions:

• You cut spending on channels that actually work
• You increase budgets for campaigns full of fraud
• You target the wrong audiences based on fake engagement

Wasted time:

• 5-10 hours weekly analyzing corrupt data
• 3-4 hours adjusting campaigns based on false signals
• 2-3 hours reporting results that aren’t real

Missed opportunities:

• Real customers can’t see your ads because fraudsters ate your budget
• Competitors who block fraud get better ad spots
• Your best-performing ads get less exposure

Remember: the smaller your budget, the more each fraudulent click hurts. Verification isn’t an expense – it’s profit protection.

When to Invest in Verification?

Start with verification when you:

• Spend over $3,000 monthly on ads
• Run ads across multiple platforms
• Target competitive keywords
• Can’t explain random performance drops

Ready to see what you’re really losing to ad fraud? Get a free demo and spot the hidden waste.

Who Uses Ad Verification?

Here’s who’s at the forefront.

Major Media Companies

GroupM, the world’s largest advertising media company, applies verification tags on all campaigns. Their agencies, including Mindshare, MediaCom, Wavemaker, Essence, and m/SIX, use these tools to ensure publishers meet ad standards.

Ad Networks

Major players such as Visto, Undertone, and Tremor Networks have integrated verification analytics into their reporting systems. This way, they monitor the performance of ads on their networks.

Tech Platforms

Some big players in ad tech have plunged in:

• AudienceScience
• Rubicon Project
• Sizmek
• Google DoubleClick

Google’s DoubleClick is unique in that it provides verification tools within its platform for easy access to advertisers in order to review their campaigns.

Conclusion

You wouldn’t leave your store unlocked at night. Don’t leave your ad campaigns unprotected either. Ad verification isn’t just another expense – it’s insurance for your marketing budget.

Want to see how much ad fraud is costing you? Try our free demo and get a detailed report of your campaign’s health.