As consumers shift more and more of their online time to mobile, ad fraud is following suit. DoubleVerify’s Fraud Lab has noted an 800% jump in in-app mobile ad fraud over the past year. In response, the marketing analytics software provider has partnered with InMobi, a mobile engagement platform for marketers.
As part of the partnership, “DoubleVerify will provide always-on fraud filtering and measurement for mobile in-app advertising campaigns across the InMobi Exchange globally,” DoubleVerify chief operations officer Matt McLaughlin said in an announcement.
Third-party verification has helped to reduced digital ad fraud on desktops to low single digits, according to DoubleVerify. At the same time, mobile apps have grown to command more than 50% of a consumer’s time online. In response, advertiser’s demand for quality mobile inventory has ballooned. That demand has fraudsters finding creative ways to corrupt the mobile ad experience.
DoubleVerifyFraud Lab has spotted three key trends related to mobile ad fraud that are on the rise:
App spoofing is increasingly sophisticated. Non-premium apps are spoofing as other non-premium apps or as premium apps to draw higher revenue by appearing to be more valuable than they actually are.
Hidden embedded browsers visit fraudulent sites where they generate non-human impressions while trying to avoid detection.
Apps that hijack mobile devices use hidden or background ads to generate high volumes of fraudulent traffic.
DoubleVerify’s integration with InMobi aims to help address these issues. The integration will cover pre-bid targeting for all InMobi Exchange impressions within its mobile in-app platform. Additionally, the integration will enable monitoring of post-bid fraud activity, such as spoofing. These also will allow InMobi to continuously refine its mobile ad inventory quality.
“With ad spend increasingly concentrated in mobile, it’s imperative that brands have transparency into the quality of mobile app inventory,” McLaughlin. “We are proud of our partnership with InMobi, which expands the footprint of our fraud prevention capabilities.”