Kochava announces the Fraud Console—a suite of ad fraud prevention tools plus a powerful and real-time dynamic Global Fraud Blocklist. It is the most comprehensive fraud detection and abatement suite in the industry, eliminating the most frequent forms of mobile ad fraud.
Fraud has infiltrated the digital landscape as an enormous and elusive crime, siphoning billions of ad spend from marketers. The latest estimates from the Association of National Advertisers estimate that fraud will cost digital marketers $6.5 billion in 2017. The good news is that is a 10% decline from last year’s estimate of $7.2 billion and is an indication of some of the protective measures marketers have taken to protect themselves. However, fraud is a given that must be dealt with in today’s digital marketing campaigns.
Kochava has long been at the forefront of fighting fraud, monitoring data abnormalities on behalf of customers. The Fraud Console gives customers access to 11 reports plus the real-time Global Fraud Blocklist. Customers can fight fraud using actionable data from the reports and also exclude hundreds of thousands of known fraudulent devices, IP addresses, and networks/sites through the Blocklist.
“The world’s largest brands trust Kochava for a reason. We always act on the customer’s behalf, and protecting their marketing efforts from wasted ad spend is one of our core competencies,” said Charles Manning, CEO of Kochava.
“The fraud prevention suite from Kochava has been an integral part of how we optimize campaigns on our client’s behalf. Based on fraud indicators, we can quickly shift budget away from known fraudulent publishers to ensure our clients’ dollars are being utilized to drive valid users via legitimate traffic sources,” said Nate Gasser, VP Emerging Media and Technology at Camelot Communications.
Summary Reports Highlight Fraud by App
The Kochava fraud algorithms cover fraudulent tactics including:
- High Click Volume: High click volumes for IP addresses and devices obscure campaign outcomes. These two reports highlight entities with abnormally high click-to-install ratios. High CTIs are indicators of click injections, likely through bots or hijacked devices.
- Mean-time-to-install (MTTI) Outliers: MTTI is the average time between the click and install and varies by app and network. When MTTI varies greatly—either too short or long—this indicates that something is askew. Kochava also reports on time-to-install (TTI) outliers on installs that occur in fewer than 30 seconds after the click.
- Geographic click/install delta: Kochava pinpoints significant differences between the location of the click and the install.
- Platform mismatches: Ads that are repeatedly served to the wrong platform may be evidence of a bot farm or poorly targeted traffic.
- Multi-hash attribution matches: If networks and publishers hash device IDs multiple times, it is an indicator for fraud.
- Ad stacking clicks: Multiple ads are layered on top of each other but only a single ad placement is visible. If a user clicks on the visible ad, a click is registered for all the ads in the stack.
- Anonymous Installs: Transactions should be transparent; a site taking measures to hide its identity is blocklisted.
- Install/purchase receipt verification: Kochava verifies installs and purchases completed from the App Store and blocklists sites with too many unverified installs.
Activate the Global Fraud Blocklist
The Kochava Global Fraud Blocklist is a dynamic list of device IDs, IP addresses and network/site IDs curated from the Kochava customer base. These are entities that have been flagged as repeat offenders of fraudulent activity.
Marketers can choose to implement this Blocklist at the account, app or tracker level. They can select which entity to exclude, or enable all three entities for exclusion from traffic. In addition, marketers can add device IDs, IP addresses and networks/sites to their own account Blocklist directly from their account’s Fraud Console.
“The Kochava fraud reports have been invaluable in assessing partners and have even provided the solid evidence necessary to secure significant refunds for bad traffic. Now, with Traffic Verification and the Global Fraud Blocklist, we have two great front-end tools to help avoid the issue altogether,” said Kevin Grimes, Ad Operations Manager, DoubleDown Interactive.
The Fraud Console: the solution for digital ad fraud in mobile
In the cat-and-mouse game of digital ad fraud, Kochava remains one step ahead with the Fraud Console, giving customers actionable data to refute unverified and potentially fraudulent traffic from their campaigns. The fraud reports and configurable Blocklist prevent wasteful ad spending and false outcomes. Using the Fraud Console means enabling fraud prevention at scale.
“Essentially, we’re providing verification that an ad was displayed as it was intended,” Manning said. “There’s an enormous amount of time and energy that our customers—both marketers and networks—invest in creating or distributing a brand’s product. Digital ad fraud is a parasite that wipes that investment away, and the Fraud Console is the firewall to prevent infiltration.”
