Why this type of ad fraud happens: 1. Traffic to publishers is down. Increasingly, the SERP can create an on-the-fly AI article that eliminates the need to click through to the publisher(s). 2. That lowers the quantity of intent-driven (good) traffic and the impressions that follow. 3. The ad salespeople can't make their targets because they're out of impressions to sell at premium CPMs. 4. The fraudsters know how to work the weak link: The salesperson who needs a new Porsche or summer rental in the Hamptons, so they bring these schemes there, knowing #5 below; 5. Senior management of the publishers have punted revenue creation to their ad salespeople. So they don't look too hard at the checks that are clearing. And since they can't see these subdomains anyway, out of sight, out of mind. 6. The people responsible for the brand--who probably run the subscription revenue only--don't have enough revenue to overcome the FUD created by the ad revenue salespeople, who are experts in FUD and BS. Et voilà. A perfectly good brand starts spewing this crud. Shame on the cast of adtech characters supporting this: Criteo Vidazoo by Perion Media.net OpenX PubMatic Xandr Sovrn 33Across Inc.Yieldmo ContentIQ Cortex and others. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Kenneth Rona, Ph.D.
Custom Bidding & Programmatic Media Consultant, Data Science/Technology/Product Leader, SWYM Founder, Startup Advisor. 🏳️🌈 Ally
Freaking hell. Legit sites are letting MFA producers access to their sub-domains and then monetizing. Excellent article by Allison Schiff. I love the Sincera guys. They are doing God's work. I would note that when SWYM.ai curates inventory, we explicitly don't target subdomains unless they are performant. That is, we get around this problem. I am always on the lookout for some application where we could use their data. Actually, I think I have one, Mike O'Sullivan. DM on the way.
Co-Managing Partner - DC Office at Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP
2moYep!