PropellerAds detected and prevented over 98% of fraudulent activity in its campaigns in 2022

Despite challenges presented by fraud in the digital advertising industry, PropellerAds, a Limassol-based multisource advertising platform with clients around the world, takes a zero-tolerance stance.

Dedicated to maintaining a secure and trustworthy multisource platform, PropellerAds demonstrated its success in fraud prevention in its latest report, an announcement from the company said.

More specifically, in March 2023, PropellerAds released data on the main categories subjected to campaign rejections. The company defines "rejected campaigns" as campaigns rejected before launching because of policy violations. Meaning, the Policy team provides the advertiser with a rejection reason and a chance to amend and resubmit the violating campaign.

According to PropellerAds, the following categories received the most rejections:

Sexual content: These were campaigns that tried to bypass PropellerAds' tough rules on explicit content.

Copyrights: Campaigns that, for example, wrongly tried to use existing brands' logos.

Misleading ads: These include among other things fraudulent malware alerts, phishing attempts, and prohibited products.

Sexual content campaigns were the highest offenders at 39.6%, followed by copyrights at 17%, and misleading content at 13%.

Continuing the Battle Against Fraud

In 2022, PropellerAds also banned fraudulent campaigns, meaning they were permanently removed from the platform.

For example, cloaking, a technique involving masking the destination of an affiliate link by creating a custom URL to conceal malicious content, was the most pervasive category banned, at 45%.

Other banned categories were:

Multi accounting was 20% of banned campaigns, wherein advertisers attempted to create new accounts after their previous ones were banned.

Fake tech support constituted 13% of banned campaigns.

Other types of fraudulent activities accounted for 9%.

Misleading ads represented 7% of the banned campaigns.

Failed KYC processes were 6% of the banned campaigns.

24/7 Fraud Prevention: PropellerAds' Policy Team at Work

According to PropellerAds, the company's Policy team works tirelessly to maintain a safe platform for all – moderating campaigns 24/7 and implementing strategies to detect and prevent real-time fraudulent activities:

Informing their fraud-fighting strategies by considering feed purity, software legibility, product category, and redirection chains, the team effectively moderates one campaign in as little as 3 minutes.

A Collective Stand: A Mission to Protect the Ad Ecosystem

Although PropellerAds is making huge strides against fraud in digital advertising, the company knows this is an ongoing fight that requires collective effort, its announcement said. PropellerAds encourages anyone aware of fraudulent activities within its network to report them promptly.

“By working together, PropellerAds will continue protecting brands and advertisers, ensuring a safe and reliable digital advertising ecosystem,” the company’s announcement concluded.