Digital transformation is key to combating advertising fraud

As they say in life, it’s all about moving in the right circles. To a certain extent, the scourge of fraud in the advertising marketplace always boils down to trust and integrity.

In most cases, trusted companies and products ensure that they are committed towards ensuring the business objectives are being met and that the customer happiness index is at an all-time high.

Nonetheless, it was recently reported that ad fraud remains highest in China, with publishers and advertisers facing losses up to US$19 and that figure could balloon up to $56 billion by the time we reach 2022, according to TrafficGuard.

Marketing Magazine caught up with Faraz Khan, Regional Head of Acquisition, at Ada Asia, about his take on things related to the topic at hand.

He understands the issue and says that there are literally hundreds of solutions out there, and a lot of people are trying to overcome this problem.

But he believes that the issue is bigger than just the fraud itself, and a holistic appreciation of the marketing perspective is integral to understand the problem better.

“When it comes to businesses and brands in general, they need to look at the complete attribution of the consumer journey and more importantly, be focused on business outcomes as well,” he said.

Khan believes that the element of follow through is very critical in terms of tracing the whole customer journey and the metrics of measurements that go with it.

“The true measure of success is always about how the business outcomes are achieved, and that is the ultimate goal,” he added.

Khan states that in South East Asia, the advent of multi-layered tools that look towards awareness, visibility and tracking of the processes in the ecosystem are already providing safeguards for advertisers and marketers, but of course, there are shortcomings.

“There is a difference between the wants and needs, and many clients are not ready to see the whole journey,” he explained.

He says many clients in the region are well-versed with the dreaded buzzword that is ‘digital transformation’ but a lot of them are still experimenting with solutions that are in their ‘infancy’.

“Most clients are aware of the importance that is associated with digital transformation, including the transformation of data, being data-centric and having proper segmentation strategies as well, but there needs to be a holistic approach to making sure of all of this is taken care of,” he added.

Khan feels that businesses in this region need to take things one step at a time so that skill sets, measurements, technologies and synergistic partners take the whole ecosystem up a few notches.

At the end of the day, businesses need to realize that success in the digital world needs a symbiosis from the technologies and business outcomes to reach a stage of excellence, and combat the malaise of advertising fraud in the future.