Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites have been around for a while, but were fully defined in 2020. Their main goal is to host ads and generate revenue from them, often accompanied by low-quality content with little to no actionable use.
Research from 2023 has shown that MFA sites accounted for 21% of all ad impressions and 15% of ad spending. The numbers have increased to those values in just three years since these websites started taking up online space.
It’s clear that MFA websites can negatively affect brands and advertisers, which is why we wanted to delve deeper into the topic. We’ll expand on our previous article on MFA sites and provide practical solutions to the issue.
Examples of How MFA Sites Have Negatively Impacted Brands
The main aspects of Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites are:
- High ad density
- Predominantly low-quality content
- Ad placement that causes accidental clicks
MFA sites inflate ad impressions by packing pages with ad placements and blending these ads seamlessly into the content, often leading users to click by accident. These accidental clicks, registered as legitimate interactions by ad networks, create a false sense of engagement but typically result in immediate user drop-off. Consequently, brands end up paying for traffic that lacks genuine intent, which inflates costs without delivering meaningful returns.
Moreover, MFA sites frequently generate low-quality, resold traffic that artificially boosts impressions, ultimately compelling advertisers to compete for inflated ad inventory. This undermines marketing budgets, as legitimate ad spending is wasted on superficial engagement.
Over time, the proliferation of MFA sites has distorted performance metrics and diminished the effectiveness of authentic ad campaigns, resulting in a decrease in brand visibility and genuine user engagement.
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An ANA study from 2023, in which 12 supply chain companies and 21 marketers participated, has shown that only 36 cents on every dollar has effectively reached the consumer. The study also showed that up to 35 cents of every ad dollar went to low-quality media, which includes MFA sites. The remaining 29 cents went to ad-tech fees. The total ad spent included in the study was $123 million, with around 35.5 billion impressions.
Since more than a third of the ad spent went towards ad fraud and other illegitimate sources, this must be dealt with. When we discount the ad-tech fees, it effectively means that almost half of the funds that could have gone to high quality publishers went to low-quality online locations like MFA sites.
This is mainly because the distinction between low-quality sites and legitimate publishers is often hard to make, especially when the latter has a somewhat higher ad density than usual. Legitimate sites usually have to deliver more ads to be profitable, even though they still produce high-quality content.
Just like the above-mentioned research has shown, Spider AF has also noticed a similar trend, which we’ve elaborated on in our 2024 Annual Ad Fraud White Paper.
We’ve witnessed MFA sites that display a large amount of ads on the same screen, which leads to more impressions from one visit. Often the ad slots refresh automatically to get more impressions and transition pages in short intervals. Along with this issue, ad networks such as the new X (former Twitter) monetization program are based on ad impressions, exacerbating the problem. Our research found that as many as 43% of all conversions were actually fraudulent conversions from MFA sites, while 29% of total ad spend went to the same websites.
To make things worse, we’ve found that some MFA sites run online ads to direct traffic to their own sites. These sites are commonly called arbitrage sites and they tend to make more in ad revenue than they spend. Site owners develop strategies that help them attract more users, tricking ad platforms like Google into thinking they are high-quality sites.
Ad Placement Strategies and Practical Solutions to MFA Sites
MFA sites are getting harder to distinguish from regular sites as their standard characteristics are too broad.
We need better and more concrete criteria, but reputable websites must also employ better ad placement strategies to avoid getting grouped with MFA sites.
Some of the main points to focus on to avoid being categorized as a MFA website are:
- Low ad-to-content ratio
- Less frequent ad refreshing
- Lower levels of paid traffic
- High-quality content throughout
Businesses need to monitor their marketing campaigns better to have an easier time spotting the issues that MFA sites cause. It’s crucial to identify poor performance and some of the KPIs that will show this and the likely presence of MFA sites include:
- Low click-through rates (CTR) — Indicate ads appear on sites with low user engagement
- High bounce rates — Show that users are leaving the site without engaging with your site
- Very high cost per acquisition (CPA) — MFA sites can drive this KPI up significantly
You also need to work more towards partnering with reputable ad networks that have stricter publisher vetting processes. Regular audits of your ad campaigns and proper ad placement are also crucial, as they will help you stay on the right course.
How Ad Fraud Prevention Can Help
Ad fraud prevention tools like Spider AF are designed to help advertisers and businesses combat various forms of ad fraud, including high exposure to made-for-advertising (MFA) sites.
The tool operates in the background, constantly monitoring ad performance and detecting problems in real-time. By doing that, ad fraud can be prevented on time.
Moreover, Spider AF also offers detailed reporting. Advertisers can review these reports for valuable insights. They can use them to oversee placement exclusions and ensure their ads are only placed on reputable sites.
Bottom Line
Made-for-advertising (MFA) sites have seen rapid expansion in recent years. These sites have gone through several upgrades, including the use of AI, that make them more challenging to distinguish from legitimate websites. Due to that, they can have a significant negative impact on advertisers and businesses.
MFA sites negatively impact brand image and marketing campaigns, as they take away advertising money from actual consumers.
It’s crucial to understand how to combat this form of ad fraud, and the strategies and solutions we’ve covered are bound to assist you. Partnerships with ad fraud prevention tools like Spider AF can take this fight to a whole new level and lead to more success.
To learn more about MFA sites and how they can affect you, download our white paper, which is filled with examples and strategies that were only briefly touched upon in this blog post.
