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Ad Fraud Trade Bodies

JICWEBS moves to tackle ad fraud

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By The Drum Team | Editorial

May 13, 2016 | 3 min read

JICWEBS has issued further guidance to its constituents on how to tackle ad fraud, with the pan-industry trade body further announcing that it will issue seals of approval to ad tech companies that adhere to its guidelines.

JICWEBS – the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards, that represents members of the IAB, AOP, IPA, plus ISBA - has today (13 May) published Good Practice Principles against which companies, such as publishers, agencies and ad tech providers, can be audited to verify their processes reduce the risk of fraudulent ads being served.

Additionally, it has also announced that it will issue a “certification seal” to those ad tech companies that their vetting processes can adhere to the prescribed principles, with the first accreditations expected in the last quarter of this year.

The principles are based on JICWEBS’ “taxonomy” report, describing the different types of potential online ad fraud, and an initial set of best practices to reduce the risk of fraud, both published in 2015. The principles cover fraud education and policies, setting correct campaign ROIs, ad inventory sources, anti-fraud technology and vendors.

JICWEBS chairman Richard Foan. said: “This latest initiative supports those who are serious about doing something to minimise the effect of fraud across our industry. It will also complement the upcoming initiative to deliver increased transparency about different fraud detection across suppliers.”

Nigel Gwilliam, IPA, media and emerging technologies consultant, added: “This output is yet another visible sign of the tireless work that’s been going on behind the scenes over the last 18 months by various elements of the industry, who’ve come together to tackle this extremely complex and evolving issue. Having already produced best practices and definitions, the production of certification principles marks a significant stage in reducing the risk of exposure to ad fraud.”

The announcement comes the same week as the IAB’s director of industry programmes Steve Chester publicly commented that the UK media industry must collectively invest more money into tackling ad fraud if it is to better police those siphoning off hundreds of millions of pounds of online adspend.

“We’re going to have to get the industry to collectively and fund this thing. To make a blunt point: we as an industry will have to stump up a lot more money. At present we virtually put in nothing in terms of protecting this industry,” he said.

The severity of the situation is likely to continue unless the industry is prepared to better fund units of the police dedicated to disrupting ‘bad actors’, similar to other industries, such as the financial sector, according to Chester, speaking at the recent Brand Safety Summit, hosted by 614 Group.

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