Lower levels of ad fraud in ecosystem-based strategies
Online advertising trading experiences face issues of fraudulent behaviour on a regular basis, a problem clean inventory data ecosystems could help to fix. Equinix, which provides a secure platform for customers to connect with other data platforms and media buyers, expects over a third of marketing and advertising professionals to make the move to its new data centre to combat fraud.

New research findings have revealed an ecosystem-based strategy lowers fraud levels in marketing and advertising, with one-third of marketing and advertising technology professionals willing to move applications to a new data center to reduce latency time and fraudulent activities.

The research, from Equinix, found that marketing and advertising technology professionals are realising that preventing fraudulent activities earlier in the bid process reduces the chance for fraudulent behaviour in subsequent phases and are increasingly looking to better maintain the integrity of their digital supply chains.

Equinix says the digital marketing and advertising industry constantly experiences issues of fraudulent behaviour, both on the buy-side and sell-side of programmatic online advertising trading. As a result, marketing and advertising technology professionals are looking for solutions to reduce fraud and create a secure ecosystem.

The survey indicated a significant drive towards clean inventory data ecosystems within the next 12 months, as digital marketing and advertising professionals strive to reduce fraud levels at the pre-bid stage with 60% of respondents indicating that it is very important to detect fraud even before impressions are sent to be traded.

Furthermore, one-third of respondents said they are willing to move applications to a new data center for an 11-30% reduction in latency time in an effort to reduce fraudulent activities.

According to Equinix, an interconnection-first strategy can accelerate the bidding and trading of ad inventory through an optimised infrastructure. As the result of trading within a neutral data center, the possibility of fraud is significantly reduced at each stage of the bidding process.

Media buying efficiency was cited as the main advantage to using a neutral data center with secure ecosystems by marketers in EMEA (73%), APAC (69%) and the US (62%), the survey found. Within LATAM, reduced fraud levels (58%) were cited as the main advantage, while APAC (44%) and the US (47%) cited reduced fraud levels as the second greatest advantage.

According to the research, 83% of LATAM and 80% of EMEA respondents believe that the detection of fraud before ad impressions are sent to be traded is either essential or very important. Results were slightly lower within the US (61%) and APAC (74%).

The report found marketing and advertising technology professionals have differing views on the main advantage to moving to a neutral data center with secure ecosystems solution with those in EMEA (73%), APAC (69%) and the US (62%), viewing media buying efficiency as the main advantage. Marketers within LATAM see reduced fraud levels (48%) as the main advantage to this type of ecosystem.

“We are experiencing an increasing demand for reduced latency times in order to combat the growing sophistication of cyber criminals,” says Lou Najdzin, senior director, Global Market Development.

“Equinix provides customers with a secure platform to interconnect with leading ad exchanges, media buyers, data platforms, data aggregators and major networks. As a result, latency times are reduced and the risk of fraudulent activities are mitigated.”