Building an anti-ad fraud system internally seems like a good idea, but in the long run, it takes the help of full-time professionals to stop fraudulent interactions at their sources.
Ad fraud is an exceptionally expensive problem, and it clearly deserves any resources a company can dedicate to stopping it. The question is, which resources? Should a business dedicate staff time and effort to solving the problem, or should it spend the money so someone else can do it? More simply, should a company build its own fraud solution, or should it hire trained ad fraud specialists to handle it instead?
Some companies are better served by building their own solutions to ad fraud, but for most businesses, this isn’t an effective long-term decision. Here’s why:
1. The Creator’s Dilemma
Some businesses opt to build their ad fraud solutions in-house because they assume that their own staff will know how to tackle the specific threats their company faces better than any third-party vendor. Internal employees may pour all of their time and effort into a home-built solution, but getting a second opinion can be invaluable.
Companies know their own metrics and measurements best, and those that partner with us for bot mitigation know that they can use White Ops to spot-check anything unusual that they see.
When companies outsource a service to another company, they take great care to ensure that the vendor’s work is up to par and that they’re getting the most for their money. But when businesses put their own egos into the mix, quality tends to take a backseat. Even the biggest, most established companies let their home-brewed ad fraud solutions lull them into a false sense of security. They assume that the tool they’ve developed is working perfectly — until an audit proves otherwise.
Think of it this way: When someone’s been working on a project for weeks, they recruit extra help to check for mistakes. An ad fraud vendor does the same work as a proofreader for a presentation or code. They’re all there to ensure that a company isn’t blind to its vulnerabilities.
2. Ad Fraud Is Always Evolving
We’ll be blunt: ad fraud is hard. Unless a company is directly involved in the work of stopping cybercriminals and preventing online fraud, internal staff probably don’t have enough technical expertise to create an effective ad fraud solution from scratch. If fraud is a major concern, why leave the job to anyone but an expert in the complex world of cybercrime?
Even if a company has some staff members who know ad fraud and how to stop it, cybercriminals are developing new approaches and techniques every single day. Most staff doesn’t spend every workday observing and thwarting fraudulent activity — if they did, companies wouldn’t be worrying about developing a solution in the first place. Businesses need the help of experts who are dedicated to stopping ad fraud around the clock.
Cybercriminals have every incentive to stay one step ahead of the defenders at all times. We take that fight very seriously, and we know that your organizations’ reputations and budgets are at stake.
3. Bits, Bobs, and Bills
Companies are often tempted into developing their own ad fraud solutions by the false promise of a cheaper internal fix. However, a vendor will send you one comprehensive and transparent bill for their services. If companies build internally, it’s on them to keep tabs on the expenses, time spent, and effectiveness of their own solutions. Real costs can fall through the cracks unobserved, much like the fraudulent traffic trying to bypass your fraud detection system.
Anti-fraud companies have already streamlined the parts, price, and process of each service, making in-house solutions a potentially less transparent financial option than outsourcing. If a quality professional service already exists that suits your company’s security needs, the best business decision might just be to leave the anti-fraud problems to them.
Building an anti-fraud solution internally may sound like a compelling proposition, but the pitfalls on that road are deep. Partnering with White Ops to detect and prevent bots avoids those challenges and provides you with an award-winning product and team of researchers working tirelessly to protect your organization.
