Expert Warns of Ad Fraud Tactics

Jeromy Sonne, a Facebook ad expert turned fraud detection specialist, advises agencies and large advertisers on the accuracy and legitimacy of their campaigns through his firm, Daypart. Ad fraud can include billed bot impressions, scam offers, and even money laundering, with the problem being worse on programmatic networks than on platforms like Meta and Google.

Sonne explains that ad fraud is an umbrella term, encompassing various forms of deception, including charging for bot impressions or automated clicks, and instances where advertisers pay for ads on high-quality platforms but the ads actually run on low-quality websites.

At the extreme end, there’s money laundering, where criminals buy ads from their own shell companies, making it a complex issue to tackle, especially when dealing with crooks trying to avoid detection.

According to Sonne, programmatic ads are more susceptible to fraud than ads on walled gardens like Meta and Google, which have more responsive teams and better policing of their ecosystem.

Even on these platforms, fraud can occur, and it is essential for advertisers to be vigilant and take steps to prevent and detect it, such as cutting out fraud to increase return on ad spend. Sonne notes that real ads going to real humans is the best optimization tactic, and transparency is key to identifying fraudulent clicks or impressions.

To detect fraud, advertisers need to look for patterns or claims that don’t add up, such as devices running on incompatible hardware, and verify the data provided by ad platforms. They can also block shady apps on the Audience Network or use their own ad server to look for discrepancies.

Sonne advises advertisers to trust but verify and call out discrepancies to work with the ad platform to get a refund. He also recommends working with an agency that knows what it’s doing and can stop fraudulent activity.

Companies spending $25 million to $50 million a year can benefit from Sonne’s services, especially those that have tapped out Meta and Google. Advertisers spending several million dollars per month on open web programmatic ads can justify the cost of hiring a firm like Daypart to help recoup fraudulent ad spend.

Sonne has a lot of respect for Comcast. Those interested in contacting Sonne and hiring his services can visit Daypart’s website at Daypart.ai or reach out to him on LinkedIn.

For instance, Sonne’s experience with mobile ads has shown that even legitimate-looking ads can be fraudulent upon closer inspection. He recalls a case where ads seemed legitimate at first glance but were later found to be running on devices with incompatible hardware, indicating spoofing or bot farms.