Are you or your client’s ad spend being lost to fraud or invalid traffic? Even worse, are your ads appearing next to inappropriate or irrelevant content? With the landscape of digital constantly evolving, so too are the ways in which ad spend is lost by organisations and agencies alike to ad fraud and Invalid Traffic (IVT).
In fact, advertisers could have lost as much as $23 billion globally to ad fraud in 2019 according to CHEQ. Further to this, 2019 research from Harris Poll and (Google) 3rd party verification partner DoubleVerify has identified that 67% of consumers would stop using a brand product that appeared beside objectionable or fake content.
While digital advertising spend is expected to drop 0.2% across APAC in 2020 (to US$86.93 billion) YoY according to S&P Global (largely due to the current uncertain times), the industry is expected to bounce back in 2021 and grow 12.5%.
“Di Australia, 30% dari seluruh traffic programmatic adalah Invalid Traffic”
Source: Australia Has The Third Worst Rate Of Ad Fraud In The World: Report, Which-50
Advertisers not looking at Ad Verification as a way to protect their media budget risk it becoming part of the large amount lost to fraudsters and Invalid Traffic (IVT), particularly with desktop, mobile, social media and online video ads expected to account for approximately 63% of APAC’s ad spend by 2024.
In this article, we explore how to achieve greater levels of control and accountability of your ad spend, and how to apply Ad Verification techniques within the Google Marketing Platform, specifically Display & Video 360 (DV360) and Campaign Manager (CM) to protect your media spend. These includes areas such as Brand Suitability & Safety, Fraud Prevention, Ad Viewability and Geo-targeting.
Apa itu Ad Verification?
Ad Verification adalah proses yang dilakukan oleh para advertiser untuk mengecek kualitas iklan mereka dari sudut pandang keamanan, transparansi, dan akuntabilitas – menjamin iklan-iklan mereka ditampilkan dalam suatu brand-safe environment untuk memaksimalkan viewability dan valid impressions (bebas dari fraud). Hal ini dapat dilakukan dengan memastikan iklan Anda tampil di konten dengan konteks yang tepat dan di waktu yang tepat ke audiens yang tepat.
Bagaimana cara kerja Ad Verification?

Di 2025 nanti, Ad Fraud diprediksi dapat menimbulkan kerugian lebih dari $50 miliar dan menduduki peringkat kedua di bawah penyelundupan narkoba sebagai sumber revenue terbesar dari tindak kriminal terorganisir
4 Strategi Ad Verification untuk melindungi media budget Anda
- Brand Suitability & Brand Safety
- Fraudulent activity and Fraud Prevention
- Ad Viewability
- Geo-targeting
Ad Verification Strategy #1: Brand Suitability & Brand Safety

With the shift in the industry from using the term ‘Brand Safety’ to more being focused on ‘Brand Suitability’, it’s important to understand the difference between them. Brand Safety is a proactive strategy to prevent potential negative brand perception based on the potentially harmful influence or association with undesirable adjacent content.
On the other hand, Brand Suitability incorporates a much more holistic approach to where your ads will be seen and interacted with, it looks at understanding the context, meaning and implications of where your brand’s content is shown online and in what ways it will engage your audience(s).
Importantly, with 77% of brands saying that Brand Safety is a key priority for them, this article shows that organisations are using tactics such as blacklists (93.8%); keyword targeting (91%); whitelists (87.8%); and 3rd party verification partners (83.9%).
Within the Google Marketing Platform, these features are all available within Display & Video360 (DV360) along with Ad Blocking in Campaign Manager (CM). Before working with a 3rd party verification partner, it is worth speaking to your Google Marketing Platform Sales Partner to discuss how they can compliment the benefits that are already within the GMP.
“Sebuah studi oleh Forrester menyimpulkan bahwa 69% brand dengan ad spend sekitar $1 juta per bulan melaporkan setidaknya 20% dari budget mereka hangus karena digital ad fraud”
Strategi Ad Verification #2: Fraudulent Activity & Fraud Prevention
Advice from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) back in 2016 identified that both people and technology are key in developing and implementing an ad fraud prevention strategy which is why you should consider in-housing the Google Marketing Platform.
Importantly, given the size and scale of Ad Fraud all over the world, understanding which channels that the GMP, whether Display & Video 360 (DV60) or Campaign Manager (CM), will protect your organisation’s media spend is key to mazimising your ad spend. According to Which-50, some key stats to think about around Ad Fraud across channels and devices includes:
- Australia has the third-worst rate of Ad Fraud in the world (behind India – 39% and Columbia – 35%)
- Fraud rates are highest in mobile in-app video advertising – 36% for phones and 31% for tablets
- Web browsing on mobile devices ad fraud rates are much lower than apps (12% for phones and 11% for tablets)
- Display advertising has less fraud than video, and in-app is again worse than web browsing. Smartphone and tablet in-app both had Invalid Traffic above 20%
- Over 22% of programmatic OTT/CTV video advertising is invalid
As part of the process to reduce and eliminate Ad Fraud, Google has offered a refunds on Invalid Traffic by exchange since 2017.
A further example within the Google Marketing Platform on eliminating Ad Fraud, is the tracking of viewable impressions and determine the impact of Invalid Traffic (IVT) from the Active View reporting within Campaign Manager (CM).
Strategi Ad Verification #3: Ad Viewability

An ad impression is considered as viewable if at least 50% of it is within the viewable space of the user’s screen – for at least 1 second for display, and 2 seconds for video.
There are a number of Viewability tactics you can use to ensure your ads are appearing in the right inventory to the right people, using Geo-targeting (location-based targeting) (see strategy 4 below) for a mobile-based audience group can be a powerful way to provide personalised ads that can achieve a high-level of viewable impressions at the point of sale where they can directly influence purchase behaviour.
Within the Google Marketing Platform, Active View tags are the tracking mechanism for the viewability of ads served through Campaign Manager (CM), however, you can set up your viewability settings within Display & Video 360 (DV360).
Target inventori berdasarkan viewability
- Buka suatu line item atau insertion order, lalu navigasi ke halaman Viewability targeting
- Di bagian Active View dari Viewability Targeting, pilih predicted viewability percentage untuk mengontrol impressions yang akan di-bid oleh line item Anda. Persentase predicted viewability terkait langsung dengan seberapa viewable setiap impression yang akan Anda bid.
- Klik Done setelah Anda telah set Viewability targeting Anda.
Bagaimana cara menambahkan tag verification pada sebuah creative di Display & Video 360 (DV360, synced dengan Campaign Manager (CM))
Untuk menambahkan verification ke creative display ataupun video, pertama Anda perlu upload creative Anda ke Campaign Manager (yang kemudian di-sync dengan DV360), lalu ikuti langkah-langkah berikut di DV360:
Display Creative
1. Di Display & Video 360 (DV360), pilih Advertiser dan kemudian klik Creatives di menu sebelah kiri
2. Buka display creative yang ingin Anda tambahkan dengan tag verification
3. Buka bagian Additional Details, lalu pilih Use custom tag wrapper
4. Salin tag creative di text box yang muncul, atau klik Cancel atau deselect use custom tag wrapper untuk menghindari perubahan creative. Kirim seluruh code snippet ke verification service Anda untuk proses wrapping tag tersebut, dan tunggu hingga prosesnya selesai dan Anda mendapatkan wrapped tag.
5. Setelah verification service mengirimkan wrapped tag untuk Anda, kembali ke halaman detail creative di Display & Video 360. Buka Additional Details, lalu pilih Use custom tag wrapper sekali lagi. Di dalam text box, pilih semua tag code yang ada dan kemudian hapus sekaligus, sebelum Anda paste code yang Anda dapatkan dari verification service ke dalam text box tersebut. Terakhir, save creative Anda.
Video Creative
1. Minta VAST URL yang sudah di-wrap, termasuk macro ${DC_VAST_URL} dari verification provider Anda. Macro tersebut akan digantikan oleh VAST URL pada saat serving
2. Buka sebuah advertiser dan kemudian klik Creatives di menu sebelah kiri
3. Buka video creative yang Anda ingin tambahkan verification di dalamnya
4. Buka bagian Additional details, lalu pilih Use custon tag wrapper
5. Paste VAST URL yang sudah di-wrap di Tag field kosong, pastikan ada macro ${DC_VAST_URL} di dalamnya
6. Save creative tersebut
Catatan: Anda tidak dapat melakukan preview tag secara eksternal sampai Anda telah re-traffic creative tag yang sudah di-wrap di langkah nomor 5.
Strategi Ad Verification #4: Geo-targeting (location verification)
Geo-targeting is an advanced personalisation strategy that is used for driving in-store conversions. This involves verifying the location of your audience from a Geo-targeting perspective.
Importantly, within the Google Marketing Platform there is no need for a Geo-targeting verification partner. Geo-targeting in the Google Marketing Platform allows you to target people based on the latitude and longitude of their device then depending on their radius to the store different personalised ads could be set up via a feed in Studio.

“74% marketer yang disurvey menyatakan bahwa data lokasi meningkatkan ROI dari marketing dan ad campaign mereka”
Sumber: Location data is a boon for marketers, study says, Mobile Marketer
Kesimpulan
To learn more about Ad Verification or Ad Verfication settings available in the Google Marketing Platform (specifically Display & Video 360 (DV360) and Campaign Manager (CM)), including Brand Suitability & Safety, Fraud prevention and Active View (Viewability), get in touch with the expert team at FiveStones today.