The Trust Imperative: Why Ad Platforms Must Evolve Their Security Approach

The evolution of digital platform security needs

Today, the ad ecosystem is more complex and interconnected than ever. 

As we outlined in part one of this series on platform trust, ad tech platforms play an integral role within this complex and interconnected ecosystem. Ad platforms use their earned trust to ensure smooth functioning among the various stakeholders: publishers, advertisers, walled gardens, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and supply-side platforms (SSPs). 

While the interwoven nature of the ecosystem brings opportunities for stakeholders to grow capabilities and collaborate more seamlessly, the speed of this growth and interconnectivity has also created an environment ripe for fraudsters to create security challenges for digital platforms and advertisers. 

Today, a host of threats—including invalid traffic, malvertising, click fraud, and violations of ad quality policies—continue to threaten this trust, making it increasingly difficult to safeguard. To address these threats, platforms must evolve their approach to protect their most valuable asset: trust.

Compounding threats: IVT, click fraud, malvertising, and ad quality violations 

When programmatic advertising first emerged, security concerns primarily centered on basic fraud prevention. Ad platform operators focused on simple verification methods such as checking blocklists and allowlists and implementing basic creative review processes. However, the landscape has changed dramatically.

Today’s advertising platforms operate in an environment where machine learning-powered attacks can instantly scale across networks, sophisticated botnets can mimic human behavior with unprecedented accuracy, and malicious actors can exploit the smallest vulnerabilities in real-time bidding systems. 

Let’s consider some of the evolving threats that malicious actors exploit:

Invalid traffic has evolved from malicious actors working from their mother’s basement to initiate simple bot activity to sophisticated organizations with development sprints delivering botnet-driven attacks that combine automated and manual methods. Adapting in real time, these operations actively evade detection rendering traditional behavioral and list-based detection increasingly ineffective. 

Click fraud first emerged alongside the birth of pay-per-click advertising. The incentive to generate fraudulent clicks for profit arose as advertisers began paying for each click on their ads. Using machine learning to identify high-value advertising campaigns, organized click farms and automated clicking tools, fraudsters are making it increasingly harder to distinguish genuine user interest from fraudulent activity. 

Malvertising has evolved from simple redirect schemes to sophisticated campaigns that use multilayered obfuscation to hide in plain sight. Bad actors now deliberately conceal malicious code within seemingly legitimate ads, making it appear harmless during initial security scans while ensuring the true payload only activates when reaching real users’ browsers. These deceptive practices not only threaten user safety but can devastate platform credibility and erode advertiser confidence in the digital ecosystem.

Violations of ad quality standards and policies have shifted from straightforward inappropriate content to complex challenges. Today, ad quality cannibalizes revenue, serves up inappropriate content, degrades site performance, and alienates audiences. As platforms address these violations, they risk damaging relationships with publisher partners.

Even worse is when these malicious threats compound one another. One malicious activity can exacerbate the impact of another, rendering both events more damaging than each would have been on its own. These threats’ evolution makes it even more imperative for platforms to evolve their protections to keep up. 

Point solutions lack the visibility and scalability to  stop evolving threats  

Ad tech platforms using point solutions may very well be protected against known threats, however, fraudsters are actively searching for and exploiting gaps between different systems. Today’s point solutions claim to adequately combat this growing evolution of threats, but have major limitations: 

Data aggregation. Gathering data from various threats, then unifying these data signals helps to identify broader trends and patterns indicative of fraudulent activity. Point solutions have little ability to unify these data silos, and the data gap inhibits threat detection.

Miss broader patterns. Advanced threat detection techniques and a unified view of these threats give organizations a substantial edge over point solutions. Point solutions can’t provide the bigger picture of fraudulent activity across different platforms or campaigns. 

Limited data analysis. Access to a broad range of threat signals provides a more accurate picture of the threat landscape. Smaller data sets may not be sufficient for robust analysis and detection of sophisticated fraud techniques. 

Inefficient monitoring. Point solutions often involve manual monitoring methods, rather than automated monitoring and detection. As a result, detection and mitigation are more time-consuming and prone to human error.

Scalability. A unified solution can more easily scale to accommodate large volumes of data and campaigns, making it suitable for ad tech platforms with diverse advertising operations. Point solutions are often dragged down by manual processes that inhibit scalability and keep pace with growing data volumes.

A comprehensive approach is imperative 

A unified solution helps address these data silos and lack of visibility into fraudulent activities. To truly strengthen your platform’s trust foundation in the face of these evolving threats: 

Vulnerability assessment. Evaluate your inventory vulnerabilities. This means identifying exposure to invalid traffic (IVT), analyzing click fraud patterns, detecting malvertising threats, and assessing ad quality. Understanding your risk profile throughout these areas helps prioritize protection efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact

Strategic partnerships. Work with established third-party verification providers to implement enterprise-grade protection. These partnerships should deliver pre-bid fraud prevention, real-time threat detection, automated creative scanning, and comprehensive reporting capabilities. The right partners bring sophisticated technology and deep-threat intelligence to safeguard your platform.

Quality standards. Develop and document clear inventory quality policies that set minimum standards for acceptance and ongoing monitoring. These standards should cover traffic quality thresholds, creative requirements, and partner obligations. Make these policies specific enough to be actionable but flexible enough to adapt to emerging threats.

Trust metrics. Establish clear metrics that measure trust across your platform. Track key indicators like invalid traffic rates, creative quality scores, and partner compliance levels. Leverage dashboards that make these metrics visible and actionable for your teams.

Transparency: Demonstrate your commitment to ad quality by being open about your standards and protection measures. Share regular reports with advertisers and agencies that document your quality metrics and protection effectiveness. This transparency builds confidence in your platform and helps justify premium rates for verified inventory.

The future belongs to platforms that recognize trust as their most valuable asset and invest in protecting it. In an increasingly complex digital advertising landscape, a platform’s success depends on building and maintaining unwavering trust with every participant in the ecosystem. By combining robust protection measures with transparent practices, you not only safeguard your current business but also position your platform for sustainable growth throughout emerging channels and opportunities.

This is part two of a series on building and maintaining trust in digital platforms in the digital ad ecosystem. Check out part one here.