Hasta La Creative!

In the aftermath of the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting: Marketing 2020, there is all but an industry mandate to clean up the advertising ecosystem for the benefit of all upright publishers and advertisers. Reducing bot traffic, which results in wasted ad spend, is now a priority for marketers with considerable digital budgets. In order to continue moving ad dollars both online and into mobile buckets, anti-bot security must become more important than mere viewability; knowing an ad can be seen fails to take into account whether the potential audience has been verified as human (and not an automated bot).

The solution that marketers are looking for will come to be known as secure media and encompasses engagement-based units, such as click-to-play video, and those that are user-configured, such as “build your dream car” opportunities. The only way to guarantee ad effectiveness for a brand campaign is to engage with a validated human audience through units that result in cognition. Ultimately, bots can’t drive cars or make travel plans, but real users can be verified. Secure media are units that advertisers will buy with complete assurance that they are seen by actual people.

The amount of bot fraud in our midst is unrivaled in any other industry and is sadly leading to a crisis of confidence on the buy side. In excess of 25% bot fraud in display advertising is weighing down already dismal effectiveness metrics and wreaking havoc on both ROI and campaign optimization strategies. By providing secure media options to advertisers, publishers will simultaneously increase ad effectiveness and improve media rates.

Continue reading at AdAge.com