The online digital advertising industry is expanding rapidly. Global digital ad spending is expected to exceed $571 billion in 2022 alone. While this is great news for the advertisers and marketers, it also gives fraudsters a wide range of opportunities to exploit. In fact, as per recent research, the digital ad industry is expected to lose $81 billion in losses in 2022, up from $65 billion in 2021. The Problem Digital marketing campaigns are vulnerable to mobile ad fraud techniques like bots and click farms being hidden by geo-masking and data center traffic, the campaigns can be exploited from anywhere in the world. While every advertiser in every country faces risk, mobile ad fraud is more prevalent and occurs at higher rates in some countries. The United States continues to be a huge, lucrative target for fraudsters, and it's time to take this fact seriously given the rise in digital ad spending, wealthy customers, and having the world's largest advertisers here. The definition of Mobile Ad Fraud Mobile ad fraud is a sophisticated type of ad fraud used to defraud advertisers. The objective behind these actions of fraudsters is to steal from advertising budgets. Click hijacking, click injection, ad stacking and SDK spoofing are some examples of mobile ad fraud prevalent today. Types of Mobile Ad Fraud and how are they draining marketing and advertising budgets With so many types of mobile ad fraud and increasingly sophisticated techniques to perform them, marketers and advertisers must be aware of exactly how fraudsters can manipulate the outcomes of digital advertising. Mobile ad fraud comes in a variety of forms that are widely used in the market and have the potential to wipe out your marketing budget. The most frequent types of mobile ad fraud are as follows: Impression fraud: Impression fraud, also known as display fraud, is a type of mobile ad fraud in which fraudsters make it appear as if an ad was seen when it wasn't . Impression fraud is when an ad is not viewable to the human eye, yet impressions are still counted. Pixel stuffing, ad stacking, and fraudulent traffic are the most well-known fraudulent ways used to carry out this fraud. Pay-per-click (PPC) fraud: PPC fraud, also known as click fraud, is a type of mobile ad fraud where individuals repeatedly click on banner ads they have no interest in, either to falsely inflate numbers or deplete advertising expenditures. PPC fraud can be carried out by actual humans using click farms, malicious software, automated scripts, or malicious bots. Cost-per-lead fraud: This type of mobile ad fraud occurs when fraudsters buy illegal contact information from third-party vendors or use crawler bots to scrape the internet for consumer data to create fake leads. Additionally, bots can automatically complete lead generation or signup forms with fake or stolen buyer information. Install fraud: This type of mobile ad fraud is generally performed by real humans working in device farms or by automated tools. Click injection, SDK spoofing, and click hijacking are a few of the techniques fraudsters use to perform install fraud to fake app installations and earn money from cost-per-install (CPI) campaigns. Attribution fraud: Attribution fraud is a supply chain drawback that publishers and ad networks exploit to steal organic and other sources traffic. Manipulating the last click helps ad fraudsters steal advertising dollars. Attribution manipulation is often done using incent or malware enabled applications where fraudsters are continuously scanning devices for APK changes and payments. The consequences of operating without a fraud prevention solution are the same regardless of the forms of mobile ad fraud your campaigns are facing. According to research, because of growing types of mobile ad fraud, businesses may anticipate an 11 percent drop in return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 9 percent rise in cost of client acquisition (COCA). Why is Mobile Ad Fraud in the U.S. such a big problem? Many of the countries suffer from a lack of mobile ad fraud regulation and are experiencing large, unstructured economic growth. The U.S. digital advertising industry, however, is widely considered as the “reference” globally— so why does it rank so high on the list of countries exposed to mobile ad fraud? Data tampering is the biggest mobile ad fraud threat in the U.S., followed by bad bots and impression fraud. The U.S. houses some of the top top cloud providers, VPN firms, and carriers in the world, in addition to the biggest advertising globally. Users from all over the world use VPNs and residential proxies to conceal their location and access apps and websites that aren’t available in their countries. Because of this reason, a portion of fraudulent traffic which is attributed to the U.S. actually comes from other countries. All this to say, the U.S. suffers from the highest mobile ad fraud-induced losses in the world. How does Mobile Ad Fraud affect the U.S. marketers and advertisers? The more your ad budgets are wasted on fake traffic, the more likely it is that you won’t be able to reach your overall business goals. The U.S. is home to the largest advertisers in the world, and mobile ad fraud prevention is now becoming more of a priority for the advertising ecosystem as a whole — especially for CMOs responsible for the return of ad spends (ROAS). Fraudsters are constantly refining their techniques and becoming more sophisticated and skilled. Enterprises without proper mobile ad fraud prevention solutions cannot keep up with the pace of fraudsters and will continue to face increased COCA and reduced ROAS and will be outperformed by their competitors

"Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.” The rise of the internet has totally transformed the way businesses use to market their products. It has created new opportunities, allowing businesses to use online marketing as a tool. Targeting niche markets and audiences is now effectively possible, which would have been inaccessible otherwise. Affiliate marketing is one such process that has significantly aided online businesses. Affiliate marketing, as defined above, is a business model that has encouraged third-party publishers and affiliates to assist in promoting and driving the sales of a business. Affiliates create traffic or leads in return for a commission or fee. It was a well throughout strategy that brought in customers while the business only paid commission on conversions or genuine leads. Either the affiliate marketer succeeds and takes their cut, leaving you with a healthy profit from increased sales, or they fail, leaving you with nothing. Unfortunately, wherever there is money, there is a possibility of digital fraud. This strategy has recently encountered a growing concern, Affiliate Marketing Fraud. This can be detrimental to your company in a variety of ways. The Dark Side of Affiliate Marketing Since affiliate marketing is a performance-based initiative, it makes it easier for fraudsters to profit from it. But of course, through fraudulent means. Scammers defraud the process by taking commissions on sales made with stolen credit cards or generating bad leads through digital ad fraud. There are instances of using device farming and click fraud for Affiliate Marketing fraud. Fraudsters take advantage of vulnerabilities in tracking attribution to claim commissions through unfair means. Ultimately the advertising budget is depleted, and the Return on Investment suffers. Affiliate Marketing Fraud It is a type of ad fraud in which affiliates defraud publishers and advertisers in order to collect commissions. Affiliates are making money out of these schemes through dishonest means. It is possible to carry it out by driving unwanted visitors to your website or by utilising bots to activate affiliate benefits. This includes everything from click flooding on CPC (cost-per-click) links to the use of sophisticated software that imitates actual users. More importantly, such activities have a significant impact on legitimate affiliates. Affiliate marketing is a well-practiced technique, and any such actions will adversely impact the method’s overall prominence. Advertisers will be paying thousands of dollars in attribution fees to fake affiliates. Moreover, it will destroy the possibility of legitimate and successful affiliate relationships. There are multiple ways through which fraudsters can deceive the operations of Affiliate Marketing. Let's have a look at it one by one Cookie stuffing It is the practice of dropping a third-party cookie from a website to the user. A fraudster places a modified cookie on the computer of an unsuspecting visitor. When this visitor purchases the product or service, the commission is paid to the fraudulent affiliate, regardless of how they arrived. This technique is considered fraudulent because it occurs without the user's consent. It will appear that the transaction is completed following the affiliate's unique link. Resultantly, the affiliate takes their commissions while providing no benefit to the business. The additional cost of this business is deceived into believing that a large number of purchases are generated from this affiliate, while in reality, those are actually sales from other channels. Furthermore, this would even result in an honest affiliate having their commission stolen. Click Fraud The cost-per-click (CPC) model pays affiliates a commission based on the number of clicks brought on the ads. And it is very easy for fraudsters to take advantage of this model by employing a number of fake clicks. Click-fraud can generate a large number of fake clicks through click farms or by using sophisticated bots. Moreover, following a type of mobile ad fraud, fraudsters may also infect user devices with malware and thus recruit users into a botnet, getting the desired traffic and visits to the digital ad. App Install Fraud App Install fraud, which is a type of mobile ad fraud, is also a common practice in attacking Affiliate Marketing. This follows a Cost-per-install (CPI) model which includes paying affiliates a commission for each successful app install. This advertising model is popular in mobile, particularly among gaming companies seeking to increase app users. Site cloning Website cloning is the method of duplicating a new website from an existing website. Fraudsters use this process to benefit themselves by creating copies of legitimate affiliates' sites in order to mislead publishers and advertisers. As a result, they direct the genuine traffic to the wrong site, where conversions eventually occur. This redirects purchases to a fraudulent website and then steals the commission earned by honest affiliates. Clone websites incorrectly attribute affiliate activity to a fraudster. Ending Note Yes, Affiliate Marketing Fraud exists. In fact, a report claims that 17% of the traffic coming from Affiliate programs is fake. This might not appear that significant, but in reality, it is expected to cost the advertising industry $3.4 Billion in 2022. Affiliate Marketing is an effective customer acquisition channel that can also promote a brand. Unfortunately, it is now associated with fake traffic. One can successfully build a brand through this channel if following the correct measures. When using the internet, you need to be vigilant, and thus, it is important to pick out the right affiliate channels.

Suppose that your business has just released a new mobile application with all of its features in a single place. Now, as a marketer, you want to encourage users to download it so they can also enjoy its offerings. With a smart marketing strategy, you can easily gain installs for your mobile app, and a good number of installs. But there is a catch. After some time, your app's engagement statistics will reveal some eye opening information. It is very common for businesses to fall victim to mobile ad fraud. More specifically, fake click and install frauds have been skewing the marketing efforts of brands since their inception. Device Farm (also known as click farm) is one such click fraud technique that can yield huge volumes of clicks and installs on your app, but all those engagements are likely be fake. Let's understand what Device Farm is, how it works, and what marketers can do to prevent themselves from these fraudulent activities? Type of Mobile Ad Fraud: Device Farm Device farm is a type of mobile ad fraud that drains advertising spending by having fraudsters manually carry out actions (such as clicks, installs, and other forms of interaction) on your ads or mobile apps. More specifically, Device Farms are real-world places where a lot of devices are stored together to execute mobile click fraud. Device Farm or Click Farm or Phone Farm is a traditional form of fraud that continues to make up a sizeable portion of mobile ad fraud because it is a relatively easy form of the crime. The farms are just a huge group of gadgets that have been programmed to carry out some operation, like an install, and then repeat this action repeatedly. Resultantly this depletes display-based marketing efforts by repeatedly clicking on mobile advertising. How does Device Farm operate and how does it affect businesses? While bots have been at the forefront of bad actors in a large portion of ad fraud, device farms use human people to commit digital ad fraud. Employing real individuals to carry out their fraudulent schemes makes it even more difficult to detect. Their in-app behaviour is identical to a genuine visitor and thus makes it difficult to detect if the user is fake or not. But why would a group of individuals install an app when they don’t intend to use it? Let’s look into this. How Device Farms Operate? A device farm is a physical location loaded with devices (mainly old mobile phones) where a large group of workers is paid to commit ad fraud. These are low-paid workers who are hired to click on sponsored advertising links on behalf of the farm master. For many of these individuals, clicking on enough adverts every day can significantly boost their revenue. The farm master establishes connections with publishers and thus looks for opportunities that require paid traffic sources and target them for fraud. Device farm is effective in Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns and mobile app installs. The scammer simply instructs their "farmers" to continuously click on the display ads or install mobile applications until the entire advertising budget has been consumed. The device farm operator instructs the farmers on how to download the desired apps and what post-install actions should be taken for each app. The farmers will then execute the same operations simultaneously across a number of devices. How do your marketing campaigns suffer from Device Farms? Here are some of the negative implications of device farms on businesses : Waste Ad Spending Since the traffic is coming from fraudulent sources, it would not result in real customers. As a result, Device farms can swiftly deplete your advertising budget without offering any genuine return on investment. Skewed Marketing Results and Reports Digital Ad Fraud can deceive marketers into believing that their marketing efforts are not drawing the proper results and thus could have damaging effects on their future campaigns. Marketers will obtain the targeted install numbers but will not get the desired engagements. Inaccurate data will ruin the marketing efforts of your business. Shorten Ad Campaign Lifetime One of the typical objectives of device farms is to flood ad campaigns with massive traffic, hence shortening the duration of your advertising efforts. A fraudster will use a click farm and bots to send hundreds of thousands of clicks on your ads in a matter of minutes, eliminating your PPC advertisements from Google search and other platforms. This would also prevent qualified leads from seeing your adverts. How to detect Device Farm fraud? Device farm mobile ad fraud will benefit the fraudster with immediate financial gain at the cost of marketers. The fraudster instructs the bad actors to interact with mobile apps, which helps them make money. As a result, it is critical for companies to stay up with fraudulent techniques. Device farms are a common mobile ad fraud technique, and there are methods developed to counteract them. Monitoring Traffic Source If most of your clicks originate from IP addresses that are assigned to suspicious locations (eg China, India, or Russia), it is possible that the traffic is coming from a click farm. Numerous installs from a single device or from various identical IP addresses can help in spotting basic device farms. Choose the ideal publisher for your advertisements It is important to thoroughly assess your ad partner in order to prevent mobile ad fraud. Not all advertisers or supply-side platform (SSP) providers are honest or ethical. Some publishers engage in device farms to fulfill the requirements of their partners. Having a knowledge of your publisher’s ad networks might help you safeguard the marketing objective and increase engagement. Using data-driven technology to prevent Ad fraud After a degree, manual intervention to detect mobile ad fraud can become more difficult. Com Olho’s cybersecurity solution can assist businesses in preventing various types of mobile ad fraud such as device farming. Start protecting your ad spending right away! Schedule a free demo with Com Olho to secure your advertising initiatives. Additional Note Device Farm is also used to deliver fake numbers of likes, subscribers, followers, etc. on social media. Of course, there is a cost to this. For most users, this is very little. However, fraudsters are making a fortune from it.

In just 25 years, brand safety has advanced from the pre-digital age to the leading edge of advertising technology. Brand Safety is setting those definitions by advertisers to make sure their ads are not placed next to inappropriate content i.e hate speech, misinformation and plagiarised and pirated content. Investing in Brand Safety not only allows your brand to showcase your ads to humans, but also protects your brand equity. In just 25 years, brand safety has advanced from the pre-digital age to the leading edge of advertising technology. Here's a look back: The Pre-Digital Marketing Era: Brand safety before the rise of the digital age was primarily concerned with issues like poor product placement, trademark infringement and bad press. It was also a lot harder to target, scale and measure campaigns, and a lot of creative energy and effort was wasted on activities that computers today can carry for us. Brand safety in 2004 - 2014: Facebook made its debut, followed in close succession by YouTube (2005) and Twitter (2006). Three years later, Facebook became the first of the platforms to launch advertising. Facebook Ads represented a completely new way of advertising online but no one predicted the brand safety implications of venturing into these uncharted waters. In 2011 , the programmatic revolution began, accounting for around 25% of all digital display ad spendings. While it's difficult to underestimate the significance of programmatic in opening the digital landscape to marketers, within a relatively short period of time, it also became the source of the brand safety challenges and concerns of the modern era. Three years later (in 2014), programmatic advertising claimed for almost 50% of all the digital display ad spending, yet many marketers remain unaware-or uncertain of how to avoid-the looming brand safety crisis. Brand safety in 2015 - 2019: In the first significant brand safety incident, YouTube was found to be publishing ISIS recruitment videos alongside advertisements for Toyota, Procter & Gamble, and other well-known brands. The proximity of hate speech, extremist content, and child exploitation caused major brands like Nike, Disney, Nestle, and Amazon to stop advertising on the site once more in 2017, 2018 and 2019. YouTube's failed attempts to eliminate these kinds of content depicts the limitations of traditional brand safety tools we had in dealing with user-generated content. Brands advertising on social platforms run the risk of flying too near to the sun if they don't have access to real-time, page-level monitoring of what users are actually viewing. As they pursue the reach and value these platforms provide, they eventually run the risk of getting burned. Brand safety 2020 - Present: COVID has generated new hurdles for brand safety. Digital use increased tremendously and as a result more and more users and targeted audiences are now consuming information via digital platforms. Keyword blacklisting and URL blocking, which are the most widely used brand safety methods, do not assist in every condition. It is vital today to go beyond brand safety. A good brand suitability strategy is needed to ensure that your brand is aligned with positive settings while avoiding damaging content. Marketers are finally starting to get a handle on the most pressing brand safety issues of modern times. The focus for forward-thinkers has shifted to finding a more inclusive approach to brand safety - one that not only embraces content left at the margins of traditional brand safety measures, but ultimately moves brands closer to their most relatable content. Why is Brand Safety important? Brand safety is in the eye of the beholder—it all depends on what is or is not appropriate for the brand." The last thing you want for your brand to be associated with something negative or inappropriate, as almost half (48%) of consumers stated they will boycott or reconsider buying from a brand if it appears next to inappropriate content or content that concerns them. While it's impossible to avoid it from happening 100% of the time, you can take the necessary steps to prevent it from happening in the first place. Brand safety is one of the biggest issues of advertisers that keep them awake at night. If kept uncontrolled, brand can indirectly help bad players monetise which leads to: 1. Poor Ad Placement 2. Fuel Fake News and Misinformation 3. Provide support to conspiracy theories 4. Promote Extremism. 5. Promote Inappropriate content i.e pornography, illegal activities, drugs, military conflicts etc. Com Olho’s Solution for Brand Safety The Internet is home to several different types of content — educational, inspiring, entertaining to name a few. However, not every web page should deliver your message. Brand safety is one of the biggest issues of advertisers that keep them awake at night, hence it’s more important than ever to ensure your advertising appears alongside content that is right for your brand. The last thing you wish is for your brand to be associated with something negative or offensive. While it's impossible to avoid it from happening 100% of the time, you can take the actions to prevent it from happening in the first place. Com Olho’s Brand Safety APIs prevent your advertising from being displayed on irrelevant and hazardous websites and mobile applications in real-time. It not only allows your company to show adverts to humans, but it also protects your brand equity. Because digital ads are likely to be seen by more humans, every proactive effort taken to limit the impact of ads being shown in irrelevant and non-human ad slots will multiply your ROAS. The patented technology helps in the assessment of campaigns’ several points, which include ownership, content kind, reviews, engagement, and other factors. After retrieving the data, the platform automatically divides it into categories, ranging from the worst to the best publishers. Conclusion Brand safety requires more than just a ‘blanket’ approach across all digital campaigns. There are content that are unique to different channels and those need to be taken into consideration when devising your brand safety thresholds to protect your brand from appearing against unsavoury content. While brand safety is an hygiene activity and increasingly becoming table stakes, marketers are focused on relevancy and suitability of the content that brands are appearing alongside as a proxy for attention.

As more and more advertisers are increasing their spending on mobile apps, mobile advertising fraud has also increased over the years. Ad fraud has been a feature of the digital advertising industry since its inception and with more and more mobile users, mobile ad fraud has emerged as one of the top marketing issues in various surveys. Invalid Traffic (IVT) is one of the most serious concerns directly related to ad fraud. Even though invalid traffic is very common in the digital ad space, it is still a concerning issue for advertisers for marketers, and publishers. Having identified IVT in your marketing strategies might cause a lot of challenges. Today we will discuss IVT in greater depth, concentrating on the most crucial information a marketer should be aware of. What is Invalid Traffic (IVT)? IVT refers to any type of online traffic originating from a non-human source. This traffic does not fulfil any ad serving quality in terms of ad clicks and impressions. In most cases, clicks and impressions not made with genuine interest are considered invalid traffic. However, invalid traffic is not necessarily always associated with mobile ad fraud. For instance, traffic from sources such as search engine crawlers and bots does not originate with a legitimate interest but is necessary. But of course, in the world of mobile advertising, IVT disguised as human behaviour is a huge issue. There are two broad categories of IVT namely GIVT (General IVT) and SIVT (Sophisticated IVT). GIVT is the one we explained earlier, the good kind does not engage in ad fraud. However, SIVT is infamous for its evil intent. SIVT is made to appear human-like and is not completely safe. General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) General Invalid Traffic, often referred to as "good" IVT is created with the intent to run over search engines. This includes bots, crawlers, spiders, and any other non-human traffic that originates from a data center IP address. In general, it is all automated traffic that does not attempt to imitate human user behaviour. As a result, they do not engage in mobile ad fraud. However, GIVT is not completely safe either. The majority of GIVT is fake traffic. And any traffic from invalid sources tends to skew audience measurement statistics by causing traffic surges that aren't produced by real users. Even if GIVT is not the result of ad fraud, it should not be paid for because it is not traffic that will convert. GIVT is usually simple to diagnose and exclude from results. Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) So, if GIVT is relatively easier to detect, SIVT is equally difficult to detect. SIVT, which stands for Sophisticated Invalid Traffic, is a much more advanced internet bot that sends traffic to several publishers’ websites by impersonating a real human being. SIVT is traffic that is created to click on or watch ads in order to boost ad revenue. Not only that. Fraudsters use SIVT to spoof domains and manipulate location data, among other things. SIVT encompasses all types of sophisticated traffic that are more difficult to identify. The detection of this type of traffic usually necessitates the use of more complex tools, as the methods and approaches for employing SIVT for ad fraud are continually changing in order to evade detection. Why is IVT a growing concern for the mobile platform? It is undeniably true that invalid traffic has resulted in all sorts of malicious practices, including mobile ad fraud. IVT affects publisher revenue in addition to lowering the value of real impressions. Sophisticated nonhuman bots, which are actively involved in ad fraud, are responsible for roughly 18% of all internet traffic in the marketing business. It might be difficult to detect and eliminate sophisticated invalid traffic on your web properties. However, this is exactly what publishers should do in order to avoid bans, account suspensions, and other ad fraud penalties imposed by ad networks and exchanges. How to combat IVT? Mobile ad fraud is a moving target, and SIVT's bots are continually upgrading their operations to drain the marketing budgets of big brands. But here are some suggestions for how marketers may counter invalid traffic. Monitor your advertising inventory It is easier to discover Invalid Traffic by maintaining a good quality ad inventory. Classifying inventory with respect to their media types will assist marketers in identifying and eliminating bot traffic. Identify the IVT starting site using analytical tools. It is critical to be able to identify the source of the traffic in order to halt it. However, this would generally necessitate some investigation into analytical reports. Furthermore, It is strongly advised to use specialist tools for detecting and blocking invalid traffic. Com Olho’s solution can assist businesses in preventing various types of mobile ad fraud. You can discover sources of invalid traffic through cluster classification supported by patented technology. Schedule a free demo to learn more about how Com Olho may help secure your advertising initiatives.

Hi, my name is Nikhil. I started working as a Data Scientist at Com Olho in the cybersecurity space two months back. My journey so far in the company has been nothing short of highly enriching. I got to work with the most talented, passionate team which shares a common goal and holds tight to their ethics. I am from Electrical and electronics background and I had developed interest in the data field in my 4th year of graduation which made me feel like it was too late to start but I made the right choice to switch. I started reading a lot and coding whatever I used to learn theoretically and it gave me enough confidence to sit for interviews. This is when I got the reality check, all the companies wanted people from the IT or CS in their data team and it was almost mental how knowledge and understanding of the field was not a criterion to be selected. My stars aligned and I finally got an opportunity for an interview with the Com Olho team and I finally found people who measured my skills and potential irrespective of my educational background. My first day at the office was enough for me to get the sense of how everyone was strongly dedicated towards a vision which was to make cyberspace a secure place for everyone. What inspires me the most is the journey that these people have covered over the last few years and how they turned a piece of code into a revolutionary patented technology which is ground-breaking to a level of completely changing the advertisement fraud detection landscape. And now after two months of working, I feel like I have completely conformed to the vision and ethical values that are prevalent at Com Olho. Every day at the office, we're solving real world problems, spreading awareness and helping each other learn and grow. We not only grow as an individual but as a team too. I had never imagined this is how I was going to start my career in the data field. A few years down the lane I think I'd already be a part of an extremely important solution to an ever-growing problem. To anyone who's reading this and wants to start a career in data science, it's fine if you don't start BIG, just start with the right people with the right vision for no number of resources ever made an idea big but the right ideas have been shaping the world since the beginning. Connect with me on LinkedIn: Link

For Every $3 Spent on Digital Ads, Ad Fraud Takes $1 The above figure has been cited so frequently that it has undoubtedly affected the perception of digital advertising. Unfortunately, this is also true, as cybercriminals have been snatching considerable sums of money from major businesses' advertising budgets throughout the years. One of the most poignant instances of fraud in any industry is certainly ad fraud. Digital ad fraud, mobile ad fraud, bot fraud, and other forms of practices that were once believed to be insignificant, are now costing the industry more than $68 billion in losses each year. Publishers and advertisers lose money as a result of the organised cybercrime activities that have grown out of ad fraud. But as a marketer, how should you respond to such sort of malicious activity? To answer that query, you first need to understand what ad fraud exactly is and how does it influence your advertising efforts? In this article, we will be discussing advertising fraud in the digital ecosystem. Ad fraud: What is it? Ad fraud constitutes efforts made by cybercriminals and fraudsters to deceive online networks in order to make financial gains. More specifically, ad frauds prevent adverts from reaching the real target audience and redirect them to non-human traffic. Digital ad fraud can function on several levels. Scammers employ bots to commit ad fraud, and they also have the ability to control traffic as well as elements like impressions, conversions, and imitating user behaviour. In marketing campaigns over the world, metrics such as traffic, bounce rates, impressions, conversions, etc. are used to determine its efficacy. However, it is relatively simple for cybercriminals to skew such data and figures. As a result, they have been duping big brands and businesses all over the world and stealing a good portion of their marketing budget. How does Ad Fraud function? There are many ways fraudsters can get advertisers and ad networks to pay them. In most cases, fraudsters send fake impressions, clicks, and traffic on digital ads. And not only bots, but fraudsters also rely on human-controlled traffic to engage in ad fraud. Bot traffic, often known as non-human traffic, refers to fraudulent ad impressions made by bots. Bots are typically programmed and trained to carry out automated processes. This way, they can perform suspicious activities such as clicking on adverts, visiting websites, and so on under the instruction of a fraudulent programmer. Their robotic behaviour and conduct make them easier to detect. On the other hand, incentivised fraud carried out by actual human beings is slightly difficult to assess. Impressions resulting from click farms will appear genuine (since they are from real beings), but those clicking on adverts are not the real targeted users for the ads. In addition, there is also mobile ad fraud, wherein malware is injected onto mobile devices. It not only compromises the mobile apps and ad campaigns running on the device but also puts the users’ private data at risk. What types of fraud exist in online advertising? Cybercriminals can commit ad fraud in a number of different ways. Sometimes the fraud targets ad networks for views, and on occasion, they may also impersonate clicks or impressions. Let us now look at some of the most popular and damaging ad fraud techniques that exist. Click Spam Click spamming, which is also referred to as click flooding, involves sending a lot of clicks to a digital advert. It is very common in mobile ad fraud, where fraudsters send a huge number of fake clicks in an effort to claim credit for app installations. The commission intended for the advertisers is given to the fraudster after the app is installed. Although the consequences vary, click spamming fraud affects almost every player in the advertising industry. It has a minor impact on users, but it has a significant financial impact if you are a network, publisher, or advertiser. Domain Spoofing Domain spoofing is a type of phishing in which an attacker impersonates a well-known publisher’s domain, and then trick advertisers and people into trusting them. Many websites reserve space on their platform for advertisements and charge advertisers to promote their business. Scammers use a publisher’s website and create a fake domain, fooling advertisers into thinking it is a real website. As a result, they charge a premium to place the advertisements there. Moreover, advertisers receive good impressions, traffic, and clicks, but most of these interactions are fake. (since the website is fake) Click Injection Click Injection is another common technique used largely for mobile ad fraud that steals legitimate, organic traffic from other sources. Using an app (suspicious app with malware) that is already installed on the user's device, Click Injection will trigger a click even before a new app is fully installed, allowing fraudsters to claim credit for the install. Click Injection exploits the existing drawbacks of the last-click attribution model and injects a click before the lead is submitted or an install is completed. Fraudsters can click on numerous adverts simultaneously by using bots or bot networks. Ad Stacking In ad stacking, numerous ads are stacked one on top of one another. In the single ad placement, fraudsters stacks multiple ads, but only the top ad is displayed to the user..In general, all of the ads below the top ad count as impressions but are not really seen by the user. The user only sees the top ad. Consequently, marketers are charged for all of the ad impressions and clicks obtained from the adverts underneath, even though the user only sees the top ad. Advertisers are paying for unseen or un-clicked ads since they still load properly and comply with the rule that at least one pixel must be visible for at least 0.5 seconds (a common metric in the digital advertising industry). The objective of ad stacking is to bill publishers and advertisers for each impression and click on each stacked ad. ​Click Farms It is one such ad fraud where the actual human beings were engaging in the crime. Click farms involve a large number of low-paid individuals recruited to particularly engage in target paid advertisements in order to "fake" impressions, clicks, and overall engagement of ads. Since it features real human traffic, it is also very hard to stop and avoid. Geomasking Geo Masking is a technique that can trick marketers into believing low-quality traffic ad high-quality. It is very easy for fraudsters to spoof or conceal the genuine location or address of a website, resultantly, also presenting fake users as a real ones. Some regions invest more in advertising and see higher conversion rates than others while running marketing initiatives. Thus scammers geomask their genuine identities using a VPN or RDP and thus get paid for irrelevant traffic, which is not the intended audience for the ad. How does Ad Fraud affect online advertising? While the primary motivation for ad fraud is money, in the context of ad tech, it is not exactly the end result. Decisions that are crucial to the campaign's operations are impacted by incomplete information. In addition to costing money, skewed statistics and misrepresented campaign outcomes can force marketers to implement more questionable decisions. The effect of the their method is overshadowed by the existence of malicious sources, even though it might be advantageous in a typical setting. How is Com Olho combating Ad Fraud? Monitoring anomalies in your ad campaigns can help determine the source of fraudulent or suspicious traffic. The anomaly-based strategy examines ad spaces for suspicious activity, such as unusually high traffic, unusual placements, and others. Ad fraud is becoming increasingly difficult to identify, particularly without the usage of anti-fraud technologies designed expressly to protect your campaigns and ad spending from such frauds. Com Olho's technology can assist organisations in preventing different types of ad fraud before they have the opportunity to steamroll their ads and drain their budgets. Schedule a free demo to learn more about how Com Olho may help secure your advertising initiatives.

Mobile penetration is at an all-time high, and hence enterprises have had to go online to stay afloat. People’s perceptions and attitudes towards digital media shifted in the wake of pandemic. App and mobile advertising providers currently own the majority of the digital advertising space. Today the majority of the digital advertising market is dominated by app and mobile advertising providers. Digital media consumption evolved in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As consumers lead increasingly hybrid lifestyles, mobile is the top-ranked priority at 77%, followed by social media platforms and videos. Mobile penetration is higher than ever, and businesses have had to move online to survive. Such times make people more vulnerable, which provides new opportunities to the fraudsters. This year, mobile internet users in India are expected to surpass 600 Million. Mobile ad fraud is plaguing mobile-based performance campaigns like never before, as fraudsters are getting smarter and using innovative and more sophisticated techniques to steal money. Click Injection Evasion is one such sophisticated tactic syphoning off enterprise ad spend dollars. What is Click Injection Evasion? To understand click injection evasion, we first need to understand Click Injection Fraud. Click Injection is a sophisticated form of click spamming and a commonly used mobile ad fraud method that steals organic and quality traffic from other sources. Click Injection exploits the existing drawbacks of last click attribution model, and injects click before the lead is submitted or an install is completed. (To understand how click injection works in detail , read this blog.) Click Injection detection using CTIT (click to install time) anomaly has been widely used by mobile advertisers in India since 2016. Evading this detection, a more sophisticated form of this fraud is click manipulation, a type of ad fraud where fraudsters, while injecting a click, backtime the click time to make sure it evades the existing click to install time algorithms present with existing ad fraud detection companies. Com Olho calls this methodology “Click Injection Evasion”. How does Click Injection Evasion work? Click Injection Evasion, a sophisticated form of click injection fraud, is a type of mobile ad fraud that is advancing as the whole world turned digital and mobile. Fraudsters work with programmatic ad networks or pre-purn applications i.e the mobile applications that are pre-installed on devices by manufacturer, and lace them with behavioural trackers and adwares. This allows fraudsters to hijack organic mobile conversions and also steal traffic from social networks reattributing them as theirs. When more than 70-80% of acquisitions are done using social networks, stealing conversion traffic from these sources makes sense for fraudulent publishers. Com Olho using deterministic and admissible in court data algorithms, has not only been able to detect click injection fraud but also as detected fraudsters attempt to reverse existing fraud detection technology. Using our patented technology, our algorithms in real time can measure any kind of click data manipulation for financial gains. Who is affected by Click Injection Evasion fraud? Click Injection Evasion fraud affects almost every player in the advertising industry, even if the consequences vary. Networks and Publishers: Click Injection Evasion fraud will take away the credit from the worthy and deserving network and publisher, depriving you to make money even if you get an install as a result of your genuine efforts. Advertiser: Even if the campaign was influenced by click injection evasion fraud, it may look that the advertiser eventually received the desired outcome that is app installation. However, it impacts them in multiple ways. To begin with, advertisers might end up paying to the network or publisher even if they earned the installation with the organic efforts. Moreover, such frauds manipulate the campaigns performance and view-ability. This can also lead to a negative impact on advertiser’s decision making as they may keep spending more on fraudulent sources while downsizing the real and true performers. Needless to mention, that was not an ideal scenario to be in. What are the threats that Click Injection Evasion pose? Click injection evasion mostly affects the publishers who run digital ads across several platforms with the goal of driving app installations. CPI campaigns are usually run on multiple different ad networks, meaning that enterprises need to protect them across each such platform. The main threats are: Exhausted Budgets: Click Injection Evasion results in fake app engagements and clicks, wasting advertiser’s hard earned money that could have been spent on reaching real and genuine people.Many fraudsters also employ bad bots to increase ad views or clicks, which speeds up the depletion of budgets even more. Skewed campaign data: One of the most damaging effects of click injection evasion is the skewed campaign data that results from it. Marketer’s future campaigns and ad spending decisions depend on the data that they get from campaigns. Since any data affected by click injection evasion will be skewed, marketers will not be able to accurately identify which channels are most effective, perhaps, resulting in investing money into invaluable campaigns. What can you do to prevent Click Injection Evasion? Using Com Olho’s patented technology, enterprises can detect click injection evasion, a sophisticated type of click ad fraud, which is spoofing more than 4 Crore devices per day an affecting at least 10% of advertising spend siphoning off INR 250 Crore a month by digitally stalking over 10 Crore devices daily. As the fraudster was able to evade click injection, it is clear that our digital ecosystem cannot be protected from this type of fraud using the existing traditional methods for identifying such click anomalies. We ensure at least 20% Month-on-Month savings on mobile ad spends using their deterministic and patented algorithms. We also published a report that deep dives into a live case of a fraudulent publisher/ ad-network manipulating the click to install time and how using our patented technology, the company identified and detected fraudsters attempted to evade such click injection detection. In Conclusion The fraudsters’s ability to evade click injection indicates that the traditional methods for detecting click anomalies are insufficient in detecting and removing such fraud from our digital ecosystems. There’s a need for innovation at the enterprise level. Fraudsters are getting smarter day by day and are siphoning advertiser’s money by sophisticating their tactics.

"Someone once told me growth and comfort do not co-exist. And I think it's a really good thing to remember." - Ginni Rometty A year ago, I started my corporate career as a Data Lead with a start-up. And looking back now, it has been the best decision I could have made as I’m learning and growing every day in my career with Com Olho. The journey as a woman in a tech start-up is seen to be a tough and rocky one, but taking it positively as a challenge, I aspire to overcome all the social misconceptions and hurdles in my way. Com Olho gave me the chance to work together with a very young and highly motivated group of individuals to define and shape the team and the goals of the company. While focusing on learning all about data and tech, and continuously refining my data & tech skills, I often found myself taking on other responsibilities as well - the best way of gaining experience in new areas. It's difficult to summarise my journey so far in a few key moments, but here we go. The team Working with like-minded, driven, and inspiring people on a daily basis is gold. Everyone who joins the company is welcomed into this expanding family. It's all fun and jokes one minute, and then we're all brainstorming and working as a team on a product release the next. Responsibilities & recognition Having a flair for coding and aggressively toying with data, developing it in the most desirable way, and obtaining positive feedback from both management and co-workers gave me the feeling that I could make a difference. This is the place I'd like to be. 'Are you sure you're not a BTech graduate?' It's the nicest feeling in the world to get recognised for what you actually believe in, and what you enjoy doing. The shining moment Acknowledging and discovering my interest in data and technology was not an easy decision in my career, but being associated with a group of people that encourage you at every step helped me feel exactly at home in the moments when I needed it the most. Being a member of Com Olho and witnessing the shift of raising the first fund round - Seed Round - as well as all of the good improvements and recognitions that followed was a wow-moment. It feels amazing to watch our company and team evolve into something so powerful. Connect with me on LinkedIn : Link

A majority of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. In fact, with 6.4 billion smartphone users worldwide, internet-based media is consumed by more people than television. As a result, internet advertising on mobile devices is becoming increasingly important to digital marketers. However, at the same time, Mobile ad fraud is on the rise and this threat hangs over advertisers and enterprises. Cybercriminals are focused on devising new ways to defraud and profit from mobile users. And recently, they have ramped up their illegal activities with SDK Spoofing, a new but incredibly dangerous form of mobile ad fraud. Let's take a look at what it is and how to combat it. What is SDK Spoofing? Software Development Kit (SDK) spoofing is a relatively new, advanced, and sophisticated kind of mobile ad fraud. It employs a legitimate device ID that figures out how different app SDKs convey install and attribution data. It then uses that information to indicate that an app has been successfully installed on a device when it has not. This resultantly costs advertisers by generating valid-looking installs that are extremely difficult to detect. SDK is often used to develop an app, a desktop program, or a plug-in. However, because certain SDKs are open source, they can be injected with malicious code to infiltrate a user’s device. Because SDKs are the most common means to create apps, most developers are ignorant of any malware. SDK spoofing is frequently done without the knowledge of the app developers or owner. Mobile devices are used by fraudsters to install a fake app or infiltrate an existing app without the user's knowledge. Then, they collect data in apps with malicious intent. It is very difficult to tell if an installation is genuine or not, and fraudsters take advantage of this fact. The source is authentic, and the device data generated is authentic, but the installation never took place. Unfortunately, advertisers are wasting money on fake engagements. Even consumers are unaware that their phone has been enslaved and has become an unsuspecting accomplice in fraud. Identifying SDK spoofing Let's take a step-by-step look at how SDK spoofing works. Fraudsters bypass the secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption between the communication of a tracking SDK and its backed servers by performing a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM attack). The fraudsters create a series of 'test downloads' for the app they want to hijack or infiltrate. They then figure out which URL calls correspond to which app operations. Cybercriminals investigate which sections of URLs are static and which are dynamic. They then put their setup through its paces and experiment with the dynamic elements. Finally, once a single install has been successfully tracked, fraudsters know they've found out how to produce installs using a URL setup. They then go through the process again and again, forever. SDK Spoofing's Impact Mobile advertising accounts for more than 70% of all internet marketing and fraudsters have plenty of room to be inventive. The malware elements on some apps can simply see adverts on a hidden web page or within the app thanks to SDK spoofing. Resultantly, these type of mobile ad frauds has a clear financial impact. For Advertisers and Marketers Under this mobile ad fraud, marketers are simply paying for fake clicks or installs. It appears that an installation occurred as a result of their marketing campaigns, but in reality, that isn't the case. Moreover, SDK spoofing also affects analytics and ad performance. Marketers believe that their ad budget is well spent, paying to advertise on a mobile app ecosystem and seeing a lot of clicks and conversions. Resultantly, they make poor decisions because of inaccurate results. Advertisers who use retargeting tactics worsen the problem of ad fraud. Re-marketing ads are then targeted at these fraudulent click sources, resulting in advertisers paying out many times for bad clicks. Mobile device users The mobile phone user may not suffer monetary losses, but they are affected by this mobile ad fraud. A malicious app is secretly running on their mobile devices, posing a risk to their confidential data. In addition, device users are also at a loss due to data and battery usage. How to detect (and prevent) such mobile ad fraud Marketing leaders must learn to spot ad fraud and reduce its impact on the effectiveness of their ad campaigns. There are signs that could help indicate traffic isn't coming from real people when it comes to click and ad fraud. SDK spoofing frequently amplifies the effects of actual user clicks or creates views without the users' knowledge. One of the most prevalent indicators of fake traffic is a large number of clicks, sometimes known as traffic surges. When this is combined with significant bounce rates, it's likely that bot fraud or fraudulent traffic is taking place. Another telltale sign of mobile ad fraud, particularly fake installs, is the time it takes to install (CTIT). The majority of organic app downloads happen within one hour of the initial click, ideally within ten minutes. In reality, just around a quarter of all installs occur within an hour of the first click. This should be a significant warning signal if your installation time is looking exceptionally long. Detecting IP address duplications or suspicious activity from specific IP addresses is also important for detecting fraudulent traffic. Although manually detecting and blocking traffic is possible, it is inefficient and time-consuming. As a result, for dynamic fraud protection, businesses are increasingly turning to automated software solutions. SDK Spoofing and Mobile Ad Fraud Examples When we say SDK spoofing is a new form of mobile ad fraud, it is because businesses have very lately recognised the existence of such illicit activities. DrainerBot is one of the most well-known examples of SDK spoofing. This malware was embedded in an SDK and was used to generate views on video adverts without the users' knowledge. DrainerBot sucked up a lot of data and power by playing videos in the background, occasionally sucking up 10GB of data in a few weeks. SourMint is another well-known SDK intrusion and mobile ad fraud scenario. SourMint is reported to have been one of the largest SDK spoofing operations on iOS devices, using an SDK dubbed Mintegral. SourMint apps are claimed to have been downloaded billions of times throughout the years, thanks to the three and a half thousand apps produced utilising Mintegral. Final Thoughts There are numerous SDKs accessible, and a developer might produce multiple apps for clients using open source SDKs. This puts the developed app at a higher risk of mobile ad fraud. Using an SDK that has a malware component, might result in the release of thousands of malicious apps on the devices without their knowledge. It's critical to realise that ad fraud affects everyone, whether you're an advertiser, marketer, or publisher. SDK spoofing is difficult to detect, but you can tackle the problem and keep your ad budget safe from scammers through awareness, and prevention. Preventative measures and a strong defence are sometimes enough to deter scammers, who may reroute their search for more vulnerable businesses.

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused significant changes in the way businesses identify themselves with different types of content. There is a drastic shift, or I might say, an increase in the number of users who consume information through online means. People are hooked on social media and websites for updates, resulting in more screen time. Brands are thus focused on establishing their online presence. However, the internet is also a haven for dangerous content, with fake news, unsuitable content, conspiracy theories, and other stuff blooming everywhere. As a result, they put a lot of emphasis on brand safety. Brand Safety solutions are intended to safeguard a brand's online reputation by prohibiting it from associating with harmful or inappropriate content. What is Brand Safety? Brand Safety is the measures taken by a brand to prevent itself from appearing next to questionable content online and safeguarding its reputation. With the present state of digital marketing, businesses are aggressively running adverts on prominent websites and social media platforms. Sites with more audiences or visitors will result in brand promotion. But that does not necessarily mean that businesses should blindly go after numbers. It would require appropriate measures to ensure that the brand uses the right step to protect itself from digital ad frauds. In this blog we will discuss brand safety solutions or measures to safeguard your business. But first, we need to understand why brand safety is important. The importance of Brand Safety in the digital world Brand safety ensures a customer's trust in a brand. Revenue, brand equity, and consumer impressions will suffer when there is no trust. As a result, Brand Safety will always be critical for marketers and enterprises. Customers may be alienated and lost as a result of poor brand alignment. Customers may now share positive and negative experiences with more people than ever before because of the advent of digital platforms. As a result, brands must resolve concerns quickly or risk losing customers and money. Brand suitability is the approach adopted by brands to find the right balance of reach and protection for their specific needs. Advertisers must understand that the brand safety strategy used for their digital advertising initiatives works at the speed of culture, and can also create new problems as they emerge. Moreover, Brand safety measures are subjective, and it will depend on what is appropriate for the brand. One strategy might work for you but not necessarily for others. For instance, a car manufacturer would not want to place an advertisement right next to a report on a car accident. However, an insurance company will be interested in ad positioning there. Brand Safety Solutions Keyword blacklisting: It is a strategy wherein the advertisers will suspend the bid if the content page contains dangerous keywords. This has been a very common route for advertisers, but it frequently results in income loss for publishers. Publishers want to be truthful, and marketers want to safeguard their brands. However, more advanced blacklisting of keywords that do not comprehend the context and simply block brands from appearing on websites would cost both advertisers and publishers in the long term. In addition to keyword blacklisting, marketers can also run Site Inspections. This includes an assessment of the website's domain authority, viewability score, fill rate, and historical bid price. The sites that meet the advertiser's expectations in terms of brand placement can help them appear next to the right content with assurance. Moreover, it is advised to keep a watch on these figures in order to prevent being penalised by brand safety authorities. Furthermore, to avoid the complexities of programmatic deals, advertisers opt for a safer option: Direct Transactions. This benefits publishers because direct deals can generate a higher revenue than programmatic auctions for the same amount of impressions. The evolution of Brand Safety and why it is becoming more difficult? While guaranteeing brand safety was once as simple as ensuring your business's ad appeared on the appropriate TV show, the shift to online and the saturation of content has made it more difficult than ever for brands. COVID has generated new hurdles for brand safety by dominating the content consumption cycle. More and more users and targeted audiences are now consuming information via online channels. Thus it now requires more attention towards surfacing authoritative and relevant content and providing critical placement for it, banning fraudulent publishers, and collaborating with partners who assure safety. It is vital today to go beyond brand safety. A good brand suitability strategy to ensure that your brand is aligned with positive settings while avoiding damaging content. However, Keyword blacklisting and URL blocking, which are the most widely used brand safety methods, do not assist in every condition. Many brand safety errors or blunders can be traced back to strategies that haven't been updated to reflect today's content and news cycles. Context is important in determining the underlying meaning of a page and accounting for subtleties in language and interpretation. Professional assistance for Brand Safety Companies Com Olho’s Brand Safety APIs prevent your advertising from being displayed on irrelevant and hazardous websites and mobile applications in real-time. It not only allows your company to show adverts to humans, but it also protects your brand equity. Because digital ads are likely to be seen by more humans, every proactive effort taken to limit the impact of ads being shown in irrelevant and non-human ad slots will multiply your ROAS. The patented technology helps in the assessment of campaigns’ several points, which include ownership, content kind, reviews, engagement, and other factors. After retrieving the data, the platform automatically divides it into categories, ranging from the worst to the best publishers. In Conclusion It is crucial to note that publishers are brands too, are connected with damaging content and can have serious reputational and financial damages. When a platform is accused of displaying harmful content, both the publisher and advertisers suffer. Advertisers are more aware of the benefits of having control over where their brand is placed. Advertisers will constantly strive to have their brand featured on content that reflects their values and messaging. And thus it is important to adopt a policy that maximises brand safety while minimising risk, especially in this fast-changing digital landscape.

Third-party cookies have been integral for digital marketing for over a decade and their reach covers everything from audience targeting to behaviour tracking to re-marketing and more. However, with searches for "online privacy" at an all-time high and this being a key concern for people all over the world, the traditional methods of collecting behavioural data as we browse needs to change, which is why Google is depreciating cookies. As we all know the digital industry ecosystem is extremely dynamic in nature. With the recent developments and changes within the marketing space, one thing always remains constant, Audience. Understanding our audience's behaviour and reaching out to the right set of consumers is the most vital aspect. And for this, marketers require data to pull insights about their user behaviour. Defining Different Types of Data Available Let’s start by looking at the different types of data that marketers use. First-Party data First-party data is data about an enterprise's customers that's collected and owned by the enterprise. Information about customers is compiled through codes and systems that the enterprise itself owns. The enterprise can use this information (digital interactions, purchase history, behaviour, preferences, etc.) to create ads, content, and experiences catering to an individual’s interests. Second-Party data Second-party data is first-party data from a trustworthy source. This data will facilitate an enterprise to achieve greater scale than relying on its own data alone, and since the data isn’t sold openly, it can provide greater value than third-party data, which is available to anyone usually who wants to buy it. Third-Party data Unlike first-party data, third-party data comes not from the direct relationship between a customer/client and an enterprise, but from an outside source that has collected the data. Third-party data often usually comes from a variety of sources online, and this information is then aggregated, segmented, and sold out to companies for their own advertising use. What is 1P data? 1P or First Party Data is the advertiser’s data that they collect directly from its customers and owns. It is an element of the mosaic of data marketers have at their disposal. The data includes information such as email, phone number, demographics, interests, time spent on the website, purchase history, etc. This customer information is collected from both online and offline sources, like the enterprise’s website, app, CRM, social media, or surveys. This data is extremely pertinent to all businesses because it is collected directly from digital or offline properties. In this blog, we’ll uncover why First party data has become a powerful tool for modern marketers. The Value Of First-Party data In this age of consumer empowerment, creating personalised and highly targeted experiences that drive brand loyalty and retention means being able to understand and respond to customer wants, needs and intent with 1:1 contextual relevance. What better way than using the actual information that details each and every customer interaction with your brand? First Party Data is qualitative. It’s free. It’s yours. First-party data is the foundation for understanding your customers as it is the data that an individual entrusts to you, in exchange for your superior product or service. And it’s the only information that provides the types of insights and control you need to recognise, relate and respond to your customers in more meaningful and valuable ways. While the concept of leveraging first-party data to reach more to known customers isn't new, the approach for doing so is. Thanks to the evolution of customer/client intelligence solutions, marketers can now integrate all of a brand’s offline and online first-party data to reach and interact with actual customers wherever they are in their decision journey. As marketers increasingly adopt customer/client intelligence as a strategic discipline, brands expect additional information from their first-party data and are planning on increasing their use of first-party data within the years ahead. Sources of First-Party Data The key to reaping the benefits of first-party data is getting the right data from the right sources. First-party data comes from a variety of sources. Website: A website can offer a wealth of data about on-site visitors, from names and email addresses to visitor behaviour and transactions. Plus, there are additional behaviours that can be tracked (such as once users hover over text or images) for specific retargeting strategies. Mobile Apps: App users are few of the brand’s most interested and loyal supporters — after all, they made the effort to download the app. To ensure useful data is being extracted from a brand app, marketers need to define which user events are significant and be sure to log and measure them. Email and SMS: Email offers data like open rates, click rates and bounce rates that date back to the beginnings of the brand’s digital marketing efforts. Furthermore, marketers may segment audiences and execute particular ads aimed at varying degrees of engagement using the comprehensive data on who is opening emails and whose interest is flagging. Similarly SMS data, text messaging is an intimate form of communication, customers who allow brands to engage with them via SMS show a high level of interest. Challenges of Using First-Party Data ​​While the rationale for employing first-party data may appear to be obvious, marketers who want to make better use of their audience and customer data face a number of challenges: Lack of a Data Strategy You can’t resolve your information issues in a single afternoon. You have to form a strategy first, which means knowing what sources you have got, what you’re collecting, and mapping it across the customer journey as you comprehend it. Your strategy will guide the method & process, and it has to be customised so that it's relevant to your brand. Integration of Data Integration is difficult. A lot of your customer engagement data lives within the fragmented silos of your third-party technology partners. Even though these partners have gathered the data on your behalf, obtaining it all at once in one place can be hard. However it’s yours, and you need it to make things happen. Pulling your data out from these silos and into one place will help you see the big picture of your data points, and the outlines of your customer profiles will start to take shape. Taking Action in Real-Time The value of data decays quickly. A first-party should be able to distribute data and information to your internal and external media execution partners so as to take advantage of what you know about each customer before the window of opportunity closes. First-Party Data Strategy 1. Create a framework for your first-party data. First-party data is the foundation for a bigger, omnichannel marketing strategy that can facilitate brands to achieve lower-funnel objectives, like customer loyalty, retention, and upselling. Outline your marketing and customer experience goals and objectives, the techniques and analytics needed to execute the strategy, and create a roadmap for how your cross-channel marketing capabilities will develop over time. Break down the long-term effort into smaller projects that show incremental returns at each stage. 2. Determine the right data points and sources. Examine and audit your data sources and points to identify what data is being generated and how it is measured. Check your data sources and data points with the data requirements of the marketing and analytics use cases you’re planning to implement and make sure you’re collecting the data that’s critical to your goals. 3. Create a Benchmark and track it over time. Continually evaluate your first-party data capabilities, monitor progress, and integrate what you’ve learned at every step along the way. Establish key success metrics for your answer, both in terms of operational capability and support for cross-channel marketing initiatives. Track information volumes, sources, process speed, profile depth, and which information is activated for analytics and measurement. Conclusion Enterprises will no longer use third-party data to target their audiences in the future. They have started to explore ways to use first-party data as the foundation of their advertising needs. First-party data is increasingly crucial from a measurement standpoint—and businesses may consider utilising their data and analytics for enhanced one-to-one engagement as well as measurement and optimisation. It's time marketers place a strong emphasis on building first-party data as their customers are demanding increased data privacy and deserve the best personalised experience. It’s true that staying on course with today’s consumers is challenging as they hop from one channel or device to the next. However, with the right technology and a customer intelligence strategy rooted in first-party data, you’ll discover the most direct route begins and ends with the first party data that i.e. the data you already own.