What is ad inventory?

Ad inventory is the space available via a publisher for displaying advertisements. This includes slots on websites, apps, streaming platforms, and other online platforms that publishers offer to advertisers for placing their ads. 

Managing ad inventory effectively ensures revenue opportunities for publishers and visibility for advertisers. However, ad inventory is also vulnerable to ad fraud, where malicious actors manipulate  user impressions or clicks to generate fraudulent revenue.

Common types of digital ad inventory include:

• Display ads such as banner and sidebar ads on websites
• Mobile ads in apps or on mobile websites
• Search ads in search engine results
• Social ads in social media feeds
• Video ads such as pre-roll and mid-roll advertisements on streaming platforms

Ad inventory is typically calculated by the total number of available ad slots on a platform and measured in terms of impressions. An impression occurs each time an ad is displayed to a user. Publishers also track metrics such as fill rate (the percentage of sold ad space) and cost per mile (CPM), which defines cost per 1,000 impressions.

Ad inventory is vulnerable to several types of fraud and inefficiency, including ad fraud, which occurs when bots or bad actors generate fake impressions, clicks, or ad engagement with the goal of creating fraudulent ad revenue or depleting advertising budgets.

Another threat is invalid traffic(IVT), traffic that comes from accidental or non-human (but not necessarily malicious) activity that cannot convert. IVT can skew metrics, misrepresent campaign effectiveness, and waste ad spend budgets. 

Another critical threat is malvertising, a form of malicious advertising where attackers use legitimate ad networks to deliver harmful ads. These ads are designed to spread malware, redirect users to phishing sites, or prompt them to download malicious software. Malvertising can exploit trusted ad platforms, putting users and brands at risk and potentially causing reputational damage and financial losses.

Protecting ad inventory involves implementing proactive prevention strategies  as well as deploying advanced ad fraud prevention tools that detect and block malicious activities like fake impressions, click fraud, and malvertising. 

• Use advanced fraud detection tools. The best practice is to implement ad fraud prevention solutions that provide real-time detection and blocking of malicious activities, such as ad fraud and malvertising. These tools analyze behavior and identify anomalies to filter out non-human traffic.
• Monitor your traffic closely. Regularly monitoring your ad traffic for anomalies such as spikes in click through or increased traffic from unusual sources can help you catch fraud early.
• Work with trusted partners. Working with reputable  advertising partners and networks will lessen your exposure to ad fraud risk.
• Use Ads.txt. Ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is a tool that lets publishers declare who is allowed to sell their ad inventory by adding the ads.txt file to the root of their domain. This can help prevent domain spoofing and counterfeit inventory.

Advertising protection for platforms combats ad fraud using advanced technologies such as machine learning, hacker intelligence, and real-time data analysis to detect and block fraudulent activities. 

The key benefits include preserving ad budgets, improving campaign performance, and safeguarding brand reputation. However, challenges may arise in keeping up with sophisticated fraud tactics.

With the ability to verify more than 20 trillion digital interactions per week, HUMAN deals with fraud at a large scale. HUMAN ad platform solutions integrate seamlessly, offering ongoing protection and adapting to evolving fraud tactics to ensure businesses stay ahead of threats and deliver fraud-free impressions.

• Malvertising Defense blocks malicious malvertisers from hijacking your platform’s ad inventory and redirecting audiences.
• Ad Fraud Defense uses real-time monitoring and machine learning to detect and filter out bots. It ensures that programmatic inventory reaches real humans across display, CTV, and digital audio channels.
  
  

What is malvertising? | Impact & protection against it

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What is click fraud?