Mobile Minute: Mobile Ad Fraud, Traffic Quality, & Awkward Conversations

Awkward conversations can run the gamut of “it’s not you, it’s me” at the close of a relationship to “actually, that’s my kid” in the McDonald’s play space. One that can be particularly tough for marketers, however, is an upfront discussion on fraud and traffic quality with their advertising partners.

However, that conversation is absolutely necessary. Find out why in this Mobile Minute with TUNE CEO Peter Hamilton:

Fraud, of course, is a legal term for an intentional act, such as cookie stuffing, IP spoofing, traffic from bots as opposed to real people, or even human-operated click farms. Poor traffic quality, on the other hand, is the result of poor targeting or the delivery of irrelevant audiences.

(Of course, non-performing creative can look very much like poor traffic quality as well!)

Having an upfront conversation with your ad networks and/or agencies — and perhaps even baking it into your contracts — is something you can do as a marketer to ensure that when you pay for advertising, it at least meets certain minimum standards, and that you get what you expect. That protects both you and your partners, since they now know to take extra care and precaution that the apps and sites where your ads are published are of high quality.

This conversation — as awkward as it might seem — is actually a whole lot less awkward than the disagreement that could result if you don’t take the time for it in the beginning. Because if your marketing campaign fails because your clickthrough rate is high but conversions are non-existent, your boss is going to start asking difficult questions. And you’re going to have to back to your ad partners with an entirely different agenda.

All of which is to say: even in modern mobile advertising … a stitch in time could just save nine.

(And, perhaps more importantly, your job.)

Author

Before acting as a mobile economist for TUNE, John built the VB Insight research team at VentureBeat and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In addition, he led technical teams, built social sites and mobile apps, and consulted on mobile, social, and IoT. In 2014, he was named to Folio's top 100 of the media industry's "most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers." John lives in British Columbia, Canada with his family, where he coaches baseball and hockey, though not at the same time.