Dive Brief:
- On Monday, the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) launched “Certified Against Fraud,” an initiative designed to combat digital ad fraud.
- TAG, a group of ad industry trade organizations, announced it was developing the program six months ago and now buyers, sellers and groups in the middle of the online ad supply chain can be awarded seals that certify them as being ad-fraud free.
- To be part of the TAG registry, companies have to apply and go through a background check and review process.
Dive Insight:
Ad fraud is an issue that marketers should be concerned about with one study from last December stating as much as 34% of programmatic traffic is at risk of fraud.
Ted Dhanik, CEO of engage:BDR, told Marketing Dive, "The 'Certified Against Fraud' program is a huge step for our industry, which, up until this point, has lacked a centralized standard about how to combat the issue- leaving grey area for bad actors to profit from, and for opportunistic companies receiving secondhand benefits to hide behind.”
He added, “Moving forward, companies who are serious about quality and transparency will be united and held strictly accountable, a move that will lead to a sharp increase in value for brands and agencies, as well as a better ecosystem for high-quality publishers to monetize their content as deserved.”
Not only does ad fraud cost buyers and sellers money, it also creates a bad user experience for people viewing the fraudulent ads which is one reason why ad blocking technology has become so popular recently. The new TAG program also serves to highlight how crucial it has become for marketers to acknowledge that a good user experience needs to be front and center.
