Will digital advertising finally get a reputation makeover?
By: Matt Gallant
Tags: Adtech, Ad Fraud, Digital Marketing, Blockchain, Display Advertising

Digital advertising recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. At this stage, most would expect the trade to be thriving with little or no flaws, but let’s be honest, nothing is ever perfect and digital advertising is no exception.

Digital advertising is a huge industry with no signs of slowing down any time soon. It’s the dominant force in advertising. Experts project global digital ad spend to reach $517 billion by 2023.

As media grows and technology advances, many issues have surfaced and of course, solutions have been implemented. However, there’s still a lot to be done to clear up the landscape.

Let’s take a look at some of the challenges digital marketers face today, what has been done to rectify the situations, and what more can be done….

The largest issue at this time is the lack of transparency which has made way for larger problems to flourish: fraud, trust, and brand reputation.

In today’s programmatic ad buying (the automated buy and sale of ad space), marketers are left in the dark to many aspects such as where the ad is shown, who is viewing and clicking on it, and where the money is spent throughout the supply chain.

The inexistence of transparency has resulted in ad fraud costing marketers $42 billion a year; brand reputation has been damaged as ads were served next to content brands wanted no association with, and ended in the accidental funding of terrorist groups. Furthermore, trust dissolved completely.

In efforts to clean up the business, preventative models have been produced…

ads.txt

Ads.txt stands for Authorized Digital Sellers. The IAB launched ads.txt so publishers and distributors can publicly declare the companies they authorize to sell their digital inventory.

Why? When brands buy ad space programmatically, they are paying for URLs where their ads will be displayed. The problem is, there is currently no way for a buyer to confirm who is responsible for selling those impressions across exchanges, plus there are cases where the URL purchased is not where the ad will be served. The goal here is to cut down ad fraud and domain spoofing by providing more transparency.

The problem is, this initiative only works if all players adopt it. But, a recent study found that while 56% of publishers sell the majority of their inventory with ads.txt files attached, only 6% of advertisers and 26% of agencies say the majority of the inventory they buy is verified by ads.txt.

Keyword blacklisting

Advertisers and agencies can block their ads from appearing against content that contains certain keywords to protect their brand’s safety and ensure the ad does not show up next to offensive content.

This is highly important as 80% of consumers said they would reduce or stop buying a product they regularly purchase if it advertised in a range of hypothetical situations involving extreme or dangerous content.

The downside, blocking keywords without examining the complete context results in misinterpretation and safe content gets blocked. Here are some stats that make you question if this is a reliable solution:

As much as 57% of safe content is getting wrongfully blocked by keyword blacklists

One of the most prevalent forms of blocking happens around entertainment. Two-thirds of content relating to movies and TV (65%) was flagged

LGBTQ content is becoming almost un-monetizable at this point, with 73% being blocked

Attention-based models

These are initiatives in which a consumer is paid for viewing an ad. These models aim to remove intermediaries between the advertiser and the user as it creates room for hackers to deceive with malevolent bots used for the generation of fake traffic. Thus, eliminating fraud and providing more transparency between brands, publishers, and consumers.

The disadvantage, users can view an ad for the sole purpose of being compensated without any real interest in the product. Without interest, there’s no opportunity to convert.

The upside to all these is the fact that through trial and error a viable solution will soon emerge…

Blockchain technology

The use of blockchain technology can provide the transparency the ad space demands.

When the term blockchain comes up, many still relate it to cryptocurrency. However, it’s not the only use for it. Blockchain is a database of records called blocks that contain timestamps. This ledger can be distributed, viewed, and verified within a peer-to-peer network. Once the blocks are added to the chain, it cannot be manipulated or altered providing the perfect backbone for an honest and transparent digital ad space.

It’s no wonder this technology is such a hot topic these days!

tribeOS has adopted the use of blockchain technology within its platform to record transaction data with incorruptible hashes and transparent code so advertisers and publishers can verify the data for themselves and have complete confidence in what they see, no more blind trust.

Now, blockchain alone is not a fix-all solution. Which is why it is only the beginning of the tribeOS tech stack.

The additional assets that make tribeOS so irresistible are:

Ad Protector — Protect Yourself from Ad Fraud.

A proprietary suite of cybersecurity tools that block bots and stops click farms from draining campaign budgets.

Atomic Traceability — Unparalleled Transparency

Track user behavior at a granular level to see every aspect of engagement from mouse movements to clicks and scrolls in real-time.

Gold Lantern — Deep, Data-Driven Insights

Powerful campaign analytics driven by four layers of tracking to ensure ultimate accuracy. Finally, marketing data that’s actually insightful.

Contextual Matching — Reach Your Ideal Audience

An A.I. driven matching engine that aligns the right advertisers and publishers to deliver the right ad at the right time.

tribeOS has created a display advertising platform that will be hard to match. Not only does it sound promising, it is…

tribeOS is currently beta testing and Ad Protector has outperformed other existing ad fraud blockers.

A test was conducted in which traffic was first passed through an ad fraud tool and then the remaining traffic was run through Ad Protector as a second pass to validate its capabilities. The result, Ad Protector identified 33% of the already-filtered traffic as FRAUD.

Soon tribeOS will be in the market and if you’re ready to hop on the most reliable solution available, I invite you to sign a Letter of Intent and lock in a 5% discount for the first six months on every dollar you spend. This tempting offer is only available to those who sign a zero risk non-binding letter of intent. Click THIS LINK and fill out your details to grab this opportunity before it expires.

A new year has begun and with the new year comes new possibilities. Join tribeOS and be part of the movement that will revolutionize digital advertising. Watch how the problems preying on the industry today will be part of the past.

Make more money. Protect your ad spend. Advertise with tribeOS.