Admit it…
Fake is the new currency of the web.
Fake views. Fake likes. Fake listens. Fake traffic. Fake followers.
Seriously! The fake factor has kidnapped the online world to the point that it has nearly paralyzed the digital ad world. In fact, according to Juniper research, ad fraud costs $51 million per day. And it’s the fraudulent advertising agencies that are partially to be blamed as they are ones who sell ad spaces on fraud sites and then get ad-bots on board to drive fake traffic to these sites.
If John Wanamaker were alive today, the merchant who gave the world the oft-repeated quote,
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half, ”
I am sure he could have easily put his finger on the problem and slashed the digital marketing budget drastically as few of America’s leading FMCG companies have already done.
Yes, fed up with fakes, America’s leading FMCG companies, such as Procter & Gamble, have slashed their digital marketing budget by half.
When America’s largest advertiser Procter & Gamble had enough and more going on its fake end, the company slashed its digital marketing budget, which ran to the tune of US$140m in April-June 2017, to half. According to the company’s chief financial officer Jon R. Moeller, it was cut where it was “ineffective”.
Obviously, the company knew which half of its advertising cost was a sheer waste and addressed the issue sooner rather than later.
It goes without saying that this fraudulent practice has left several business heavyweights second guessing considering the kind of money they were putting out just to reach prospective clients.
Here’s the deal…
Blockchain technology has the answer
This disruptive technology has the answer to digital ad frauds, thanks to its shared database that ensures every ad delivery and placement happens right under the nose of its stakeholders, be it advertisers or publishers. In other words, every ad delivery and placement is seen, shared and updated on the blockchain.
This brings in ultimate transparency to the digital ad supply chain. For more info check out this video:
Now let’s talk about 3 ways blockchain is disrupting the digital marketing space.
#1. Online ad audit to deal with ad fakes directly
As it turns out, blockchain technology is ingeniously designed to figure out fake ads via its shared database system.
And helping blockchain in this noble cause are various blockchain-based solutions such as Adchain.
Here’s how Adchain ensures that ads in the value chain are real and not fake:
Adchain divides the entire process into two parts.
Part 1
When an advertiser or a company buys an ad impression through real-time platforms such as demand-side platforms or DSP. The DSP’s job, in turn, is to find target audiences through ad exchanges that pool in ad inventory from tens of thousands of online publishers.
So far so good.
Now, Adchain enters the scene by adding a tracking beacon to ads to verify whether they have been viewed by real or fake …read more
