why brands need ad verification tools by seth meisel

#SMX #32C2 @ThriftBooks @SethMeisel

Why Brands Need Ad Verification Tools

Protecting Your Brand In The Era Of Fake

News


Started in 2003 and operated from a storage unit in Kirkland, WA 2 founders would hand deliver books to the post office in the evenings

In 2007 we opened our second warehouse Rapid growth for the next 6 years

Today we are the largest used book seller in the world Over $95M in revenue Over 700 employees in 11 states Over 15M books shipped in the last 12 months Our total Dev and Marketing Team is still less than 20 people today

ThriftBooks.com – Milestones


Does is matter which websites a brand’s ads show on?


How I found out I had a problem:


Sleeping Giants Movement (@slpng_giants) is a movement letting brands know they’re showing ads on Breitbart.com.

They were tagged in this tweet because S.G. asks members like @Feralish / (aka “Cat Loaf”) to take screenshots of brands showing on Breitbart.com.

Their aim is defund Breitbart of ad revenue.

Here’s the steps I took to respond:


I initially reached out to the account that sent the tweet…


THE S.G. FAQ:http://bit.ly/2hgC9wv THE S.G. UPDATED CONFIRMED LIST: http://bit.ly/2gcSNvW REMOVE ADS YOURSELF: http://bit.ly/2hzUZin

Note: As of writing this, S.G. reports that over 1,300 brands confirmed that they have removed Breitbart.com from their ad buys.

Then I read S.G.’s FAQs and did a “confirmation tweet”

http://bit.ly/2hgC9wv%C2%A0

http://bit.ly/2hgC9wv%C2%A0

https://t.co/4TYRUOj9sv

https://t.co/V4V8qWyyv3


Major brands not aware their ads are showing on Breitbart:

– http://n.pr/2gIu8A9

Macedonian town of Veles had a small industry of profiting from websites with fake news headlines during the recent US presidential election:

– http://bit.ly/2kphWY3

“Methbot” by October 2016 was siphoning $3 - $5 million per day in ad revenue across +6,000 websites:

– http://mklnd.com/2gZc410

Recent news tells me I am not alone:

http://mklnd.com/2gZc410

http://mklnd.com/2gZc410


1. Am I able to fix this issue myself?2. What is the extent of the issue?3. How do I audit where our ads have shown and will

be shown going forward?4. How much has this issue cost my brand so far?5. How would we go about blocking non-brand safe ad

placements before they happen?

Outlining the requirements of a possible solution:


Whitelisting & Blacklisting SolutionsThese solutions help brands create custom strategies specific to their business vertical (exp. Books vertical), analyze which sites you have served on & optimize for brand safety.

Pre-bid Placement Verification These solutions monitor and/or blocks ads placements if the site violates your brand’s brand safety settings.

My research turned up a few types of solutions:


IAS (Integral Ad Sciences) Trust Metrics WhiteOps Pixalate Moat (Analytics) DoubleVerify

I ended up with a shortlist of potential vendors:


Needed a solution that would identify which sites we’ve been wasting ad spend on & stop traffic to those sites going forward.

Step #1: How do we audit 145,000+ websites?domain

ebay.commg.mail.yahoo.comyahoo.comtumblr.comitunes.apple.comoutlook.complay.google.comdrudgereport.commsn.comweather.commail.aol.comus-mg6.mail.yahoo.comanswers.comapps.facebook.comus.msn.comimgur.comus-mg5.mail.yahoo.comcollective-exchange.comoffbeat.topix.com


• Gave them a 7-month Inventory report of 140K+ domains our ads showed on.

• Trust Metrics categorized 4,500+ domains that represented 93% of our ad impressions.

Trust Metrics audit:


1. “White” Sites2. “Gray” Sites3. “Black” Sites – (low quality, not safe, High UGH, Non-English, Insufficient Data, Foreign, redirected, opaque)

Inventory breakdown of the 4,519 sites in the audit:


Trust Metrics audit:

1600


Good news is that half our spend was ok! The bad news is that the other half was “gray” or “black” and potentially wasted. Wait, what’s black mean??

1600


“Black” site definitions:


“Black” site sub-definitions:


Some examples of “low quality” sites:


Examples of “not safe” sites:


And examples of sites “not in database”:


Finally, examples of “gray” sites:


“White” sites:


We followed up with 19 sites that we blacklisted (not safe, low quality, not in database)

Blacklisted Sites from audit represented:o 771,422 ad impressions on brand unsafe domains.o 1,116 ad clickso $1,372.94 in spend

Actions taken as a result of this audit:Sitescollegefreakz.comthatviralfeed.netloanpride.comvorply.comfastpokemap.seblackfridaydeals2016.cocoolmath-games.combrainjet.comstars.topix.comroasted.comlikes.comminq.comratemyjob.comzoo.comurbandictionary.comreddit.comdeviantart.commangahere.cobeforeitsnews.com


Need a pre-bid blocking solution that would stop the programmatic ad buys before they’re bid on, before my company’s ad shows on the site.

Step #2: Can we proactively prevent ads from showing on a non-brand safe site?


• 19 day test on our Remarketing campaigns that featured IAS “monitoring” tags

• Set Brand Safety Settings for categories like Adult, Violent Content, etc.

• Monitoring Fraudulent Traffic• Monitoring ad Inventory unrated by IAS• Monitoring ads showing on browser 3rd

party tools • Monitoring Ad serving in Geographic

regions• Monitoring View ability Percentage

IAS (Integral Ad Sciences) Test


Not blocked at the domain level, but ads blocked on parts of domain that weren’t brand safe



Geographic Ad Monitoring • Useful if your sites only fulfills to particular countries.

3rd Party Viewability KPIs

“Suspicious Activity” Non-Human Traffic Monitoring

Other KPIs monitored by Pre-bid Verification Vendors:


Findings:• 11% of our Ad Impressions monitored

would have been blocked by our custom brand safety settings (or 321,153 ad impressions)

• 1.3% of our program were “suspicious” ad impressions (or 35,531 suspicious ad Impressions)

less than 1% of ad impressions served in non-U.S. countries



Google has started allowing MRC Audits:• http://bit.ly/2lDHG2b

Facebook’s changes to their “trending” feature:• http://on.wsj.com/2ksE6Yq• http://on.mash.to/2mciGxf• http://bit.ly/2m7UZGc

Google removes 200 websites from AdSense network:• http://on.mash.to/2l9kvxG

Final thoughts – looking forward:

http://bit.ly/2lDHG2b

http://bit.ly/2lDHG2b

http://on.wsj.com/2ksE6Yq

http://on.wsj.com/2ksE6Yq

http://on.mash.to/2mciGxf

http://on.mash.to/2mciGxf

http://bit.ly/2m7UZGc

http://bit.ly/2m7UZGc

http://on.mash.to/2l9kvxG



1. We blacklisted domains that are not safe, low quality and not in TM’s database.

2. Based on insights from our 19-day Integral Ad Sciences monitoring test, we are now looking into implementing a blocking tag solution so we can utilize pre-bid ad blocking.

Actions taken based on findings:


1. These types of solutions can help optimize ad spend & protect your brand’s (or client’s) ads from showing on non-brand safe sites. They can also filter out suspicious activity, monitor geographic ad serving & establish viewability metrics.

2. Look into the feasibility of serving your own ads via a dedicated ad server or via vendors like (DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) or Sizmek for display ads & Innovid for video ads in order to be able to opt into tag-based solutions.

3. Make sure vendor you choose is properly accredited by the MRC (Media Rating Council)

4. Blacklist at the domain level only when the whole site is problematic, otherwise you risk limiting a program’s reach. My preference is pre-bid blocking at the sub-domain level.

Recommendations for Brand Managers:


Related Links:Meet the Ad Companies Ditching Breitbart and Fake News:http://bit.ly/2hRUY63

Advertising’s Moral Struggle: Is Online Reach Worth the Hurt?http://nyti.ms/2mqxyev

For Advertisers, Fake Eyeballs May Be Bigger Problem Than Fake News:http://n.pr/2gIu8A9

Google purges nearly 200 websites in fake news crackdownhttp://on.mash.to/2l9kvxG

White Ops reports biggest ad fraud botnet found yet: ‘Methbot’ targeting high-CPM video inventory:http://mklnd.com/2gZc410

Journalism Fights For Survival In The Post-Truth Era:http://bit.ly/2kme4H7

http://bit.ly/2hRUY63



http://nyti.ms/2mqxyev



http://n.pr/2gIu8A9

http://n.pr/2gIu8A9

http://n.pr/2gIu8A9




https://www.wired.com/2017/02/journalism-fights-survival-post-truth-era/



http://bit.ly/2kme4H7


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