TubeMogul, a marketing software and real-time exchange company, is set to launch a non-human traffic credit program that offers to refund client money spent on any fraudulent traffic acquired through its service.
As of April 1, TubeMogul clients will receive credit for any non-human ad traffic acquired through its open exchange inventory that can be verified as fraudulent by White Ops, a New York-based ad security company.
Keith Eadie, TubeMogul’s chief marketing officer, believes the fight against online fraud still has a long way to go, pointing to January 2016 research from White Ops that shows bot traffic on some advertiser’s programmatic spend gets as high as 37%. Eadie said while his stats show his company’s various anti-fraud measures have reduced their levels of fraud down to “low-to-mid single digits,” that’s still “way too much.”
Taking on the costs associated with fraudulent ad views does put the company’s topline revenues at risk, but Eadie said the company’s analysis shows the financial impact — at least for now — appears to be “immaterial” thanks to its existing anti-fraud measures.
“It’s a simpler, cleaner – frankly the right thing to do — to simply put our money where our mouth is and take the problem completely off the table from an advertiser’s point of view and have an automatic refund program,” he said.
To do so, TubeMogul is implementing White Ops’ verification process across all video ads bought through its OpenRTB system. “It’s totally automated and proactive. It comes right off their bill.”
White Ops’ January study of 49 advertisers showed 3% to 37% of their programmatic media buys were compromised by bots charging advertisers for ad views that are completely fabricated. Programmatic video inventory appears to be especially well-targeted by bots, with the study indicating 73% more bots among tested video inventory than the baseline.
“We can measure all we want, but until there is clear accountability in the system, it’s hard to make significant progress on fixing the problem,” said Michael Tiffany, White Ops’ CEO, in a statement. “Brands need to demand, and providers need to accept, responsibility for the elephant in the inventory. TubeMogul’s bold program is throwing down the gauntlet, and others like it will help move the industry forward.”
TubeMogul, which is based in California, reported revenues of US$58.5 million for Q4 2015 Monday, up 62% over the same period in 2014. That’s based on a similarly increased client spend of US$134.5 million, up from US$82.6 million.
That put the company’s annual revenue up to US$180.7 million, an 58% increase compared to US$114.2 million in 2014.
