Purpose
・Further strengthen measures by visualizing ad fraud
Q. Before you introduced SpiderAF, how did you do fraud protection?
Mr. Suzuki: Originally we would link up the data that’s been totalled up from each web partner with our own data (SDK data) and adjust operations for cancelled partnerships on the media side, but because details on ad fraud were black boxed, investigations into the causes as well as fraud prevention took up a lot of man-hours.
We handle our own company titles as well as client ads and with each day that we monitored these ads, we began to feel a growing necessity for fraud protection. In addition to fraud protection on the media side, we concluded that fraud protection also has to be strengthened on the client and agency sides.
Approximately $46,500 USD of ad fraud was detected in about 55% of all advertising costs
Q. After introducing Spider AF, did it get to the root of things?
Mr. Suzuki: After introducing Spider AF, out of the $70,000 USD we spent on monthly advertising costs, about 55% or approximately $46,500 USD was detected to be ad fraud.
Using this $46,500 USD, we were able to reinvest the budget into other advertising and more cost effective media.
Up until now our info from these countermeasures have been limited, but with the ability to visualize details with SpiderAF, we can now carry out detailed analysis for each ad fraud.
After implementing measures, our advertising payout period improved significantly – going from 3 months → 2 months!
Q. Were there any results from improvements in promotion?
Mr. Suzuki: When we are placing out an ad, we are usually looking at how much ROAS we will be collecting but the speed in collecting advertising costs has become faster and has improved significantly.
It used to take three months, but now it can be collected in about two months.
Mr. Kondo: The numbers on the surface tend to be preliminary, but we are catching up with the producer / director and doing factorial analysis on the quality part of users who are one step ahead. If you do not understand the fraud that is among the factors, you may doubt the game design.
Where should you launch fraud protection
Q. There are a lot of people out there that know that fraud protection is a good thing but might not necessarily know what they should do. Where should they start?
Mr. Kondo: I think that they should start by first understanding the current situation. If you’re placing up ads, you need to understand the situation and find out how much ad fraud gets mixed up in the bunch.
On top of that – and this will be a frustrating situation – but decide on the conditions of the ad fraud and go into the details of how you are going to eliminate it from the budget.This will consume a lot of time and man-hours but since it’s an important factor, you need to start on this one by one. Because of that significance, we also have SpiderAF set up as a support system and we’ve been able to press forward smoothly.
Who should use ad fraud protection
Q. Among advertising channels, who do you think should use ad fraud protection?
Mr. Kondo: Fundamentally, I think that anybody that is affected by ad networks must work on fraud protection.
Simply, I think the first person to notice is the person who can see the data and can understand the current situation.
We also had the preconception that “we are all right”, but honestly speaking, as soon as that lid opened and we saw just how much ad fraud had occurred, we were baffled.
It’s good that you can give it a try and see how much ad fraud has occurred. I think it’s important to have a sense of crisis.（Try out a free fraud diagnosis on Spider AF）
Understand fraud protection and quickly prepare!
By understanding the current situation, I think that in some cases people in charge will be able to recognize fraud that has happened up to now and possibly be blamed for them.
Q. Where is the point where you successfully get over it?
Mr. Kondo: Here at Drecom we have a corporate culture where we press forward change flexibly and take on challenges in new things. But I think it’s the point when you start thinking of how ad fraud works, think about how the current situation is – including sales people also understanding this point – and the point where as a company, you start doing your ad placement business in-house.
Thank you very much!
