Four steps to verifying ad performance against fraud

This article examines how measuring digital advertising through clicks reveals little about the ad's performance in its target market and is contributing to a worrying trend towards short-termism in marketing.

From ad fraud to ad blocking to the over-commoditisation of premium digital ad inventory, it seems as if virtually all of the ills of the online advertising ecosystem can be traced back to one single measurement problem: the perpetual preoccupation with the click. The industry measures clicks because it's easier than doing anything else, yet at the same time by so doing it is trapping itself in an ongoing cycle of short-termism.

This cycle of short-termism has really started to make itself felt in the first half of 2017. There has been more than one exposé in the press about...

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