Marketing and advertising

SSP Operator: Ensuring Inventory Quality and Transparency

Using Spider AF's detection and reporting tools, Ad Stir stopped transmissions from over 100 fraudulent sources in a single month, restoring transparent, trustworthy inventory for demand-side partners.

https://en.ad-stir.com
Industry
Marketing and advertising
Company Url
https://en.ad-stir.com
Region
Tokyo, Japan
Spider AF Product
100+ fraudulent sources blocked
100+ fraudulent sources blocked
ROAS improvement
14 days Time to first insight
The Challenge

Budget disappearing with nothing to show for it

MOTA's performance team noticed their cost-per-install was rising sharply — but installs weren't converting to active users. Something was eating their budget.

  • Google Ads campaigns showing high install volume with near-zero in-app activity
  • Meta click-through rates inflated by what appeared to be bot traffic
  • Internal attribution data was inconsistent — impossible to identify the source
  • Monthly ad spend growing without corresponding business results
  • Manual IP blocking too slow and too narrow to make a meaningful impact
Why Spider AF

The only platform built specifically for ad fraud detection

MOTA needed more than a generic analytics tool. They needed a system that understood how click fraud works in performance marketing — and could stop it in real time.

01

Real-time invalid traffic detection

Spider AF monitors every click and impression in real time, flagging bot traffic, click farms, and abnormal patterns the moment they appear — before they drain more budget.

02

Direct Google & Meta integration

Native integrations with both platforms allow Spider AF to feed exclusion lists back automatically — no manual uploads, no lag between detection and action.

03

Transparent fraud reporting

Detailed dashboards give MOTA's team clear evidence of exactly what was fraudulent, how much it cost, and proof of savings — making it easy to justify the ROI internally.

The Approach

From blind spots to full visibility in four steps

01

Connect & audit

MOTA connected their Google Ads and Meta accounts to Spider AF in under 30 minutes. Spider AF immediately began pulling historical click data to establish a baseline — surfacing patterns that had gone unnoticed for months.

02

Identify fraud sources

The platform identified three distinct fraud vectors: click farms targeting their branded keywords on Google, bot-generated clicks on Meta video ads, and a network of spoofed apps generating fraudulent impressions.

03

Deploy exclusion rules

Spider AF automatically pushed IP exclusion lists and audience exclusions to both platforms. Rules were updated daily, keeping pace with evolving fraud patterns without requiring manual intervention from the MOTA team.

04

Monitor & optimise

With clean traffic data flowing in for the first time, MOTA's team could make genuine optimisation decisions. Bid strategies, audience targeting, and creative allocation all improved — because the underlying data was finally trustworthy.

The Results

Campaign performance before & after Spider AF

Valid installs rose while overall spend held steady — a direct result of eliminating fraudulent traffic from the media mix.

Monthly cost-per-install trend (JPY)

Before Spider AF After Spider AF
¥3,000 ¥2,000 ¥1,000 ¥0 Spider AF deployed Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Pre-deployment average: ¥2,840 / install Post-deployment average: ¥940 / install

"We knew something was wrong, but we had no way to prove it. Spider AF gave us the evidence we needed — and then fixed the problem automatically."

Takeshi Yamamoto
Head of Performance Marketing, MOTA
The Outcome

Clean data. Real results. Confidence restored.

Six months after deployment, MOTA's performance marketing operates on a foundation of trusted data — and their results speak for themselves.

With invalid traffic eliminated, MOTA reallocated ¥2.4 million in previously wasted budget to high-performing placements, tripled their ROAS on Google Ads, and built the internal case to double their digital ad investment in the following fiscal year.

Frequently Asked

Questions about Spider AF for performance marketing

Spider AF begins flagging suspicious patterns within hours of connecting your ad accounts. Most customers see their first actionable fraud report within 24–48 hours, and automated exclusion rules take effect immediately once confirmed.

Yes. Spider AF has native integrations with Google Ads, Meta Ads, and many other major ad platforms. Exclusion lists and audience blocks can be pushed to all connected platforms simultaneously from a single dashboard.

Yes — and that's the point. Raw numbers will decrease, but your real metrics (genuine installs, conversions, ROAS) will improve because your budget is now reaching actual humans. Spider AF's reporting helps you explain this shift to stakeholders clearly.

Absolutely. Spider AF is particularly effective for app install campaigns, where fraudulent traffic patterns (such as install farms and click injections) are most prevalent. The platform includes dedicated detection models tuned for mobile app marketing.

There's no hard minimum, but customers typically see the strongest ROI when spending ¥500,000 or more per month on digital advertising. Even at lower budgets, the data-quality improvements can meaningfully change optimisation decisions.

Is click fraud eating your ad budget right now?

Most companies don't know how much they're losing until they measure it. Spider AF shows you exactly where your budget is going — and stops the waste automatically.

✓ No credit card required ✓ Setup in 30 min ✓ Cancel anytime

SSP Operator: Ensuring Inventory Quality and Transparency

Using Spider AF's detection and reporting tools, Ad Stir stopped transmissions from over 100 fraudulent sources in a single month, restoring transparent, trustworthy inventory for demand-side partners.

Goal

・Secure quality and transparent inventory as an SSP operator

Topics

・ There’s little room for improvement when we can not comprehend ad fraud with data only from the demand side
・Identify countermeasures for  in ad fraud

Results

・We were able to stop fraudulent media at a large scale
・We can appeal to the public that we are taking measures against ad fraud by using a third-party organization, and are able to build a strong relationship of trust with the demand side.
・By joining SBL MEMBERS, we are able to catch up with the latest info on ad fraud and share know-how with every company involved.

Q: Could you tell us the timing and reason of when you felt that countermeasures were needed for ad fraud?

Starting from spring to summer last year, the number of people from our network pointing out fraudulent media was spiking. Operators on the demand side were contacting us, letting us know that fraud was occurring in our inventory. In the midst of all of this we felt that there was a need to have countermeasures in place since ad fraud was getting more and more sophisticated everyday.

Q: Before you started using SpiderAF and joined the SHARED BLACKLIST (SBL), what kind of measures did you have in place against ad fraud?

We implemented stops on media and accounts based on the info that we got from operators on the demand side. However, things couldn’t completely improve since we were only using this info, there was an absence of comprehensiveness about ad fraud. So the number of fraudulent accounts was still increasing every day, and there was no way to deal with it.

Q: Please tell us what the deciding factor was for using SpiderAF and its comparison with other tools?

We were using a competitor product in the past. But when we signed up for SpiderAF’s trial, we were happy to see its ease of use and high detection accuracy. The level of support was also a deciding factor, as the lecture on how to use and the contents of the ad fraud analysis were explained in an easy-to-understand manner.

Q: Thank you very much. When you started using it, how many people actually used it?

We operate with a team of 2 people. Once a month we get a report. Based on that, we confirm and delete fraudulent media. We also use the API from IP Blacklist to automatically eliminate access from fraudulent IPs.

Q: Could you tell us some of your favorite functions on SpiderAF?

Because it is visualized, you can quickly understand what is ad fraud by just taking a glance at the report screen. Plus, we reference a lot of the feedback we get from SpiderAF’s customer success team. Since up until now we’ve only been cleaning up fraud, I think going forward, we want to build up our own knowledge of ad fraud based on this feedback.

Since the SpiderAF customer success team provides explanation and feedback as to how they deduced that something is fraudulent, our company can correctly decide what is fraud without any specialization from our staff.

Q: How does Spider AF contribute to adstir?

We’ve had months where we could stop transmissions from over 100 fraudulent sources. We can visually reduce ad fraud and keep transparency at a high level. We can provide an environment where media can be delivered with confidence.

Q: How are you using SBL? Could you tell us what functions you find convenient and what functions you use often?

We’ve been able to reply “No Ad” for requests from IPs included in SBL. In the future, we would like to automate domains that contain fraud deemed by other companies so that they can be prevented before they occur.

Q: Could you tell us what your opinion is about the R & D seminar held with only SBL MEMBERS?

I’ve learned a lot since joining the R&D seminars.


We’ve been able to hear a lot of topics from many different companies and get to understand what sort of measures they use. They give examples of what sort of situations they dealt with and it’s been very informative learning from that. We get the latest information about ad fraud and it truly feels like a significant seminar.

Q: What is your outlook for businesses and services, including the use of SpiderAF?

In the future, we believe that SSP providers will be required to further increase the quality and transparency of their inventories. We want to aim to be in a position where we can implement timely countermeasures against the evolving nature of ad fraud and distribute ads with confidence. In the future, SpiderAF will support real-time detection and blocking, so we will continue to work together to provide a clean inventory.

We’re planning a big release on real time functions for this year, so we hope in the future for more cooperation and initiatives with adstir!