New methodology designed to bring greater authenticity of ad clicks and more transparency to the mobile industry
San Francisco and Berlin – Adjust, the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention, unveiled a groundbreaking new standard in the fight against mobile ad fraud: Click Validation Through Proof of Impression. With fraud estimated to represent in excess of $50 billion by 2025, Adjust’s new standard is designed to give marketers greater clarity of ad clicks and bring more transparency to the sector.
Along with the announcement of the new standard, the company also released a white paper in which the reasons and solutions are explained. The standard forms part of Adjust’s wider mission to combat mobile ad fraud and create a more honest and open ecosystem. Leading networks including Adcolony, Applift, Aarki, Chartboost, InMobi, ironSource, Liftoff, Vungle, and programmatic in-house software Kayzen have already begun implementing the new standard into their system.
Introducing Click Validation Through Proof of Impression
Adjust’s new standard for Click Validation encourages ad networks to send impression data with a unique identifier that corresponds with resulting clicks from users. Throughout the year, it will become a core requirement for all network members of the Coalition Against Ad Fraud (CAAF), an industry-wide alliance founded by Adjust to tackle mobile ad fraud. Other industry players are also invited to do so, creating more transparency and unifying efforts to prevent fraud in the ecosystem.
By requesting an impression before the click, it will make it possible to check if there was a matching engagement made by the same device – leading to more accurate attribution and less budget wasted on ad fraud. The new standard will first be piloted with select clients already using Adjust’s Fraud Prevention Suite.
“This new Click Validation industry standard raises the bar for fraudsters, making fraud far less lucrative,” explained, Paul H. Müller, Co-Founder & CTO at Adjust. “This step toward transparency is long overdue, and we invite all ad networks and attribution providers to adopt this new improved standard as soon as possible. Only by working together will we be able to get rid of ad fraud for good.”
The validation requirement dramatically increases the workload for fraudsters seeking to steal brands’ and advertisers’ ad budgets, particularly through the most prevalent methods of ad fraud in the market today: Click Injection and Click Spamming.
The Latest in Adjust’s Anti-Fraud Initiatives
The new fraud filter, along with the rest of Adjust’s fraud prevention initiatives, forms part of the company’s mission to bring education and transparency to the mobile marketing ecosystem. As the industry becomes increasingly concerned about ad fraud, Adjust has spearheaded an industry-wide movement with a hands-on approach to eliminating the issue for good.
The company strengthened its commitment to the cause with the creation of the Coalition Against Ad Fraud (CAAF). In January 2019, Adjust also announced the acquisition of award-winning cybersecurity and AI startup Unbotify. Integrating Unbotify’s disruptive technology will bolster Adjust’s product offering while making it even harder for fraudsters to target the company’s clients.
About Adjust
Adjust is the industry leader in mobile measurement and fraud prevention. The global company provides high-quality analytics, measurement and fraud prevention solutions for mobile app marketers worldwide, enabling them to make smarter, faster marketing decisions. Adjust is a marketing partner with all major platforms, including Facebook, Google, Snap, Twitter, Line, and Tencent. In total, more than 25,000 apps have implemented Adjust’s solutions to improve their performance. Founded in 2012, today Adjust has global offices in Berlin, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Paris, London, Moscow, Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore.
In December 2018 Adjust acquired data aggregation platform Acquired.io. In January 2019 Adjust acquired the award-winning cybersecurity and AI startup Unbotify. The acquisitions are part of Adjust’s goal to unify advertisers’ marketing efforts and build the best-in-class measurement and fraud prevention tools.
