Fraud & Identity Featured Article

How Fraud Protection Gives Marketing an Edge

By Steve Anderson Contributing Writer

With so much of advertising these days paid on a per-click, per-view or clickthrough basis, it's not surprising to see some users turning to traffic fraud in order to get even a decent paycheck. This leaves marketers in a difficult position; marketers want access to the market, but also want to be able to manage payments correctly and put resources where the most impact can be had. That's led to tools like AppsFlyer's stepping in to provide extra help.

Recently, AppsFlyer brought out its Active Fraud Insights 2.0 system, which can help spot several different kinds of mobile fraud. From install hijacking to click flooding to even DeviceID reset, Active Fraud Insights 2.0 is geared toward spotting it. Alongside that, AppsFlyer also brought out a complete review of its ad networks, over 2,500 at last count, to focus on minimizing fraudulent traffic in general. The system boasts several new analysis tools, able to track devices that have Limit Ad Tracking systems in place, devices that are considered “suspicious” in general, low clean install rates and more.

With mobile fraud on the rise, according to AppsFlyer CEO Oren Kaniel, in both frequency and sophistication, it was clear that some breed of tool to help prevent this fraud was necessary.  It's actually building on a pretty substantial base; Active Fraud Insights has been around since 2016, and its first version already managed to point out better than $30 million in fraud in just the first quarter of 2017.

AppsFlyer won't have this market to itself, though; iconectiv (News - Alert) has been hard at work on its own countermeasures for fraud, particularly its Messaging Solution. It’s designed to help protect companies against improper messaging brought about by recycled phone numbers, and also come in line with provisions set forth by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA),

Such fraud solutions are inevitably necessary, consequences of improved capability in tracking systems and the potential responses to these tracking systems. Whether out of greed or necessity, content providers are in some cases turning to fraudulent sources to improve their metrics and thus increase their payout. That's a potential disaster for marketers, who must respond in order to preserve a campaign's integrity and get the most return on investment.

Some might say that the solution here is simply less tracking, where ads are sold on size rather than complex metrics that gauge how effective an ad is. The problem here is the balance between the needs of the marketer and the needs of the content provider. Content providers have to eat and pay their bills, and if marketers don't recognize this need in pricing advertising, it's likely that fraud measures will only continue to improve.