In our digital age, apps are spending billions on advertising to bring in users. Lots of that advertising money is being wasted, and some of it is being stolen. The deception behind the fraud? Mobile ad fraud. This type of fraud occurs when fake installs, fraudulent clicks, or bogus impressions mislead app owners into believing that the promotion is effective. For example, Apptrove is a mobile measurement partner that assists companies in checking and protecting against ad fraud and obtaining real growth.
We will discuss what mobile ad fraud is, the impact it has on businesses and what tools can detect it.
What is Mobile Ad Fraud?
At its core, mobile ad fraud is the manipulation of app advertising for profit. Let’s say that you have run an ad campaign on Instagram. You want real installs of your app from real people. However, a fraudster figures out a way to use bots or a fake device to generate thousands of installs, and they get paid for them—you’ll never get the real users.
This is mobile ad fraud. Money spent on advertising, and no value added by the activity.
Why Mobile Ad Fraud is a Big Problem
Mobile ad fraud is not a trivial problem. It’s a significant problem for the app ecosystem. Estimates from industry reports suggest the app industry loses billions in ad spend to fraud every year.
Here’s why it is so disruptive:
- It wastes precious user acquisition budgets that could be spent attracting quality users.
- It makes campaign results appear much better than they are.
- It confuses app marketing teams, making it difficult to determine which campaigns are effective in acquiring quality users.
Without solutions, mobile ad fraud can kill your growth efforts before they even begin.
The Potential of Real-Time Fraud Detection
One way to fight back is through real-time fraud detection. Instead of finding out about fraud weeks after the fact, with detection tools, you can analyze installs and clicks as they happen. For instance, real-time fraud detection can flag installs that happen far too quickly after the ad click, something that most real users never do. This gives app owners the ability to stop the fraud from happening immediately, instead of weeks later.
With real-time fraud detection and good reporting it makes mobile ad fraud much harder to pull off.
Mobile Fraud Prevention Strategies
Preventing fraud isn’t just about detection. Mobile fraud prevention is a method of restricting bad traffic from getting in, to start with.
Some classic methods for mobile fraud prevention include:
- Disabling traffic from suspicious IP addresses.
- Using device fingerprinting to recognize patterns.
- Working exclusively with reputable ad networks.
Incorporating prevention with detection, app owners can increase defenses against mobile ad fraud.
Types of Mobile App Ad Fraud You Should Recognize
Fraudsters use many different tactics to rip off app advertisers. Here are some of the most common forms of mobile ad fraud:
- Click Spamming: Overwhelming networks with fraudulent clicks as a means to get credited for real installs.
- SDK Spoofing: Sending fake install signals that appear as though they originated from a real device.
- Device farms: Taking rows of inexpensive devices, simulating installs and activity.
Each of these unique forms of mobile ad fraud generates fake numbers that waste real money owned by app owners.
How Mobile Ad Fraud Hurts Different Apps
Different app categories are affected by mobile ad fraud in different ways:
- Gaming Apps: They generate fake installs that make it look like many players joined, but none stick around.
- Shopping Apps: They generate fake impressions and absurdly low click-through rates wasting ad spend, but don’t deliver real buyers.
- Streaming Apps: They generate fake signups that grow download numbers but hide whether the marketing is effective or not.
No matter the app category, mobile ad fraud is impacting your budget and limiting your potential to grow.
The Future of Mobile Ad Fraud Protection
Fraudsters continually create new tactics, which means defences must continue evolving. Tomorrow, AI, machine learning and predictive models will take front and centre in the battle against mobile ad fraud by identifying suspicious patterns before damage occurs.
App owners who implement strong fraud solutions today will be best equipped for future challenges.
Take Away
In a constantly disruptive world of mobile apps, every marketing dollar matters. Mobile ad fraud can take away those dollars, leaving app owners with worthless results.
However, tools are available, such as real-time fraud detection and mobile fraud prevention, that will enable businesses to protect themselves. Through blocking fake installs and clicks, marketers are afforded to concentrate on genuine growth that is sustainable.
And with Apptrove leading the charge for you and your marketing dollars, we can fight against mobile ad fraud as robustly as ever.
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