IAB Europe, the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising and marketing ecosystem, has today released its ‘Guide to Ad Fraud’, to help drive media quality and effectiveness in the digital advertising industry.

This guide has been developed by experts from IAB Europe’s Quality and Transparency Taskforce (a part of the Brand Advertising Committee). It defines specific types of fraud in digital advertising and outlines how verification companies work to combat new and emerging types of ad fraud across all channels. It also provides top tips for buyers and planners to prevent Ad Fraud in their next campaigns and serves as a call for action to the industry to follow best practices to tackle ad fraud.

Brands in Europe are now spending around €4.7bn (£4.2bn) on digital advertising, and they want to know that this significant investment isn’t squandered. But with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) estimating that by 2025 over $50bn (£45.1bn) will be wasted annually on Ad Fraud, it is vital for all stakeholders to ensure they have the right preventive measures in place. A key part of the guide therefore focuses on the importance of rapid detection, which includes the stages of ad fraud detection that companies should follow. Commenting on the importance of Ad Fraud detection, Diana Romero, Manager, Digital Standards and Partnerships, at Publicis Media Exchange said “Publicis Media agrees with and supports the industry’s best practices to prevent Ad Fraud, which mandate that marketers should work with at least one verification provider and TAG-accredited partners; take advantage of tools like ads.txt and app-ads.txt; and stay up-to-date on potential threats in new channels that may not be addressed yet by verification providers.” It has been a collaborative effort to produce this European-level guide for Ad Fraud, with contributors including Integral Ad Science (IAS), DoubleVerify, Oracle Data Cloud, Group M, Pubmatic, and Publicis Media. Agora S.A also contributed their knowledge on behalf of IAB Poland.

Commenting on the importance of the guide to help tackle Ad Fraud, Nick Morely, managing director EMEA at Integral Ad Science said “The fight against ad fraud is ongoing and ever-changing. As fraudsters become more sophisticated, it is imperative that advertisers and publishers ramp up their fraud prevention technologies to stay one step ahead. Integral Ad Science welcomes collaborative, industry-wide efforts to combat ad fraud and is proud to be a part of this IAB industry guide, alongside key partners. The guide serves as a vital resource to understand the numerous forms of ad fraud, its challenges, and provides actionable solutions to the digital advertising community.”

Mark Kopera, head of product for Moat by Oracle Data Cloud echoed this point, commenting that “Oracle Data Cloud is committed to both educating the industry through initiatives like this collaborative paper, and providing sophisticated ad fraud solutions to arm marketers against known and future threats. We’re proud to work with IAB Europe on this piece, and hope it serves to jumpstart conversations around the various types of ad fraud, the solutions available today, and the importance of choosing the right partner to fight this battle.”

In order to build a sustainable future for digital advertising, it is essential that the industry collaborates to build solutions that limit the influence of fraud across all channels, formats, and devices. Commenting on IAB Europe’s focus to raise quality and transparency in digital advertising, Helen Mussard, marketing & industry strategy director at IAB Europe said, “When we set out with the work of this Taskforce in January, our main focus for the year was to build confidence and trust in digital advertising and marketing. With the threat of Ad Fraud ever-present and ever-evolving, we have seen just how fundamental this type of work is to the future of our industry - building trust through sharing best practices. Wide advances in verification tools and machine-learning technology capabilities are enabling us to tackle this threat, and being able to provide a space for members to collaborate on this work is vital if we want to beat the bots. The Ad Fraud Guide is proof that industry initiatives work to create collaborative success.”

IAB Europe continues to work with its members to shed light on key topics around quality and transparency, ensuring our industry is built on trust.

IAB Europe’s Guide to Ad Fraud can be downloaded from IAB Europe’s website here.