What is invalid traffic (IVT)?
Invalid traffic is the technical term for advertising impressions generated by bots or any form of nonhuman traffic. IVT is often conflated with ad fraud, but not all invalid traffic is malicious. Still, detecting all forms of IVT is essential to protecting ad spend and ensuring impressions are valid and viewable.
In an effort to help advertisers guard against IVT, the Media Rating Council (MRC) launched the IVT accreditation in 2015 to help prove the effectiveness of measurement providers on IVT for desktop, mobile, web, video, and in-app mobile. There are two mutually exclusive categories:
| General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) | Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Identified through routine means of filtration executed through application of lists, or with other standardized parameter checks. | Difficult-to-detect situations that require advanced analytics, multipoint corroboration/coordination, or significant human intervention to analyze and identify. |
| Types |
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What is ad fraud?
Ad fraud is the practice of fraudulently representing online advertisement impressions, clicks, conversion, or data events in order to generate revenue. Fraud in digital advertising is a subset of invalid traffic.
Over the past several years, there have been numerous sophisticated and far-reaching ad fraud schemes that have focused on spoofing websites and driving bot traffic to cash in. With names such as DrainerBot, Hyphbot, and 3ve, these operations cost advertisers and publishers real money.
Webcast: Bots and bogus impressions: Modern IVT and safeguarding spend
It’s imperative to protect your ad spend in times of uncertainty. Learn how as Sam Mansour, principal product manager at Moat by Oracle Data Cloud, walks through:
- The different levels of IVT sophistication and how to spot it
- Why accurate and complete IVT detection is important
- A recent bot network discovery case study
Resources
From the Oracle Data Cloud blog
With such a fast-moving industry, it’s important to keep ahead of the curve. Stay up to speed on what’s happening with the latest and greatest around invalid traffic and ad fraud from the Data Cloud blog.
- Invalid traffic and ad fraud in advertising: Interview with an expert
- Playing to Lose: How Moat Uncovered an In-Game Advertising Fraud Scheme
- How Much Ad Traffic Is Invalid? Moat Quarterly Benchmarks Break It Down
- Industry Leaders Answer Questions About Digital Ad Fraud
- How to Protect Mobile Campaigns from Devious Forms of Invalid Traffic
DrainerBot exposed—an audio event about ad fraud
Listen to the quick-hit podcast about the DrainerBot mobile ad fraud operation. Learn about the real problem of ad fraud as it persists today, how it touches consumers, and just how deviant and far-reaching the hackers behind the curtain can be.
Protect your spend with sophisticated invalid traffic detection
The Association of National Advertisers estimates $5.8 billion in ad spend was lost to global fraud in 2019. With Moat by Oracle Data Cloud, media buyers and sellers can protect their digital investments with confidence. Moat’s MRC-accredited offerings won the Adweek “Readers’ Choice: Best of Tech” Award for Best Brand Safety/Verification Solution in 2019.