Viral content: The first warning sign of fraud

Michael Misiewicz & Laura Yu

Explores some of AppNexus' observations surrounding viral content and the current state of ad fraud throughout digital media, offering recommendations to publishers, advertisers and internet users.
  • In addition to costing advertisers billions of dollars each year, ad fraud undermines brands' confidence in the programmatic marketplace.
  • Viral content goes hand-in-hand with online advertising fraud and generally, publishers specializing in viral content are much more likely to receive non-human traffic.
  • Traffic acquisition vendors deserve careful scrutiny, in order to eliminate fraud.
  • "Fake News" and hate speech are often just another form of viral content, and it appears that many of the ad-supported sites in these categories are likely driven by money as much as by ideology....

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