What is CTV fraud?
Connected television (CTV),--that is, television that is streamed via the internet–is one of the fastest-growing and digital media environments that also attracts fraudsters in droves. With CTV fraud, malicious actors steal revenue from fraudulent interactions through many methods, including by artificially inflating ad impressions. CTV enables users to connect to streaming services, watch on-demand videos, or other content via their TV. This content is often interspersed with ads.
Consider a couple of key types of CTV fraud:
Engagement fraud. In this scenario, malicious actors manipulate an ad engagement, click, scanned QR code, or ad impression to steal an attribution from organic and other legitimate sources and claim revenue from it. The end user, the device, and post-install activity are all real; the only fabricated thing is the engagement.
Spoofed users. Conversely, in this scenario, engagement, the install, and any post-install activity—is fabricated. Unlike engagement fraud, users aren’t real users, and bots are unleashed to mimic real user behavior.
With CTV ads making up higher percentages of digital advertising globally each year, fraud continues to threaten publishers and inventory quality. In 2024 alone, ad fraud and invalid traffic (IVT) on CTV cost advertisers billions of dollars. And while CTV protections exist, adoption of the current standards has been less than widely accepted. As CTV becomes more and more complex, the standards will be needed to stay ahead of the complexities to keep fraud out of CTV advertisements.
How does technology prevent CTV fraud?
As CTV grows in popularity– over the past five years, time spent with CTV has increased by more than 137%, and time spent with traditional/linear TV has decreased by nearly 17%--the threats to CTV also increase.
The first step in guarding against CTV fraud is industry-wide acceptance of standards and best practices. Second, media buyers should wield their influence to push their technology partners to promote a fraud-free ecosystem.
How does HUMAN prevent CTV fraud?
Tools such as HUMAN Ad Fraud Defense enable media providers to effectively protect against CTV ad fraud.
HUMAN helped one customer safeguard more than 90 billion CTV bid requests, keeping its valid in-app inventory average high even as it saw tremendous growth. . Ad Fraud Defense enables customers to expand into safe inventory partnerships without compromising on safety and fraud.
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