Don't Expect What You Don't Inspect

The trade press widely covered the study with over 40 articles, many highlighting MFA ad inventory as a concern for brands to reconcile. More importantly, the MFA revelation has sparked a surge of interest from AdTech companies along the supply chain with many now offering new MFA-blocking solutions.

While AdTech’s response is positive, the ANA’s central recommendation to advertisers remains clear. The tried-and-true concept of "trust and verify" should always be in play in AdTech Land. Taking your eyes off the ball for even one second can be the difference between winning and losing with open web programmatic advertising.

To be clear, the risks associated with blindly trusting anti-MFA implementations must be balanced with regular verification, which can only occur at the log level. For some advertisers, MFA sites may be fine; for others, they may be unacceptable. The decision on what’s best is for each advertiser to make, but ignoring the facts revealed in the ANA report and blindly using MFAs is likely not the answer.

The fastest and surest way to trust and verify is to run log-level data analysis against a regularly updated MFA site list. It’s not only simple to do today with the following three easy steps using available technology, but also low-hanging fruit for advertisers to take transparency from talk to action.

1. Get your log data from your DSP(s).
2. Run it against a constantly updated MFA site list.
3. Consider whether it is in your company’s best interest to cut MFA sites that anti-MFA offerings might have missed.

The Rise of MFA Blocking Options

As I said, the revelation that a significant portion of advertising budgets is directed toward MFA sites has spurred the industry into action. In turn, various AdTech players such as PubMatic, Magnite, ShareThrough, Newsguard and others have quickly responded by actively pitching anti-MFA options.

While these companies clearly recognize the new urgency of protecting advertisers from falling victim to fraudulent practices and have seized the opportunity to offer technology to safeguard brands' reputations, it begs the question, "What took so long?"

While the industry's response to the ANA report reflects a collective commitment to addressing the MFA challenge and raising advertiser confidence in programmatic advertising, past AdTech precedent with respect to ad quality issues should give advertisers a flashing red-light warning to take a caveat emptor stance.

Yes, the emergence of "new" MFA-blocking options is promising, but advertisers should exercise caution in placing blind trust in the very AdTech systems that should have addressed MFA from the start. Relying solely on AdTech-led solutions without visibility into their effectiveness and accuracy can leave advertisers vulnerable to the same risk as before.

Given the dynamic nature of MFA sites that are easier and cheaper to produce than ever before with advances in AI-generated content, a more proactive always-on approach will go a long way. To truly benefit from opting into MFA blocking or pruning tactics, advertisers should also consider adopting a comprehensive parallel strategy that includes ongoing log-level data analysis blended with a constantly updated MFA site list. Regularly conducting log-level data analysis against an up-to-date MFA site list enables advertisers to have more comprehensive visibility into their ad placements along with the comfort of verifying the true effectiveness of these new MFA blocking options.

The bottom line is don’t expect what you don’t inspect. The opportunity to "know" and move beyond uncertainty is within reach for marketers heralding a new era of transparency and accountability in programmatic advertising. By considering MFA-blocking options and actively engaging in verification, advertisers can shift from a state of "knowing what you don't know" to "knowing" for sure.

The "trust and verify" approach recommended by the ANA will not only help safeguard advertising budgets but also protect brand reputations at the same time. By adopting a proactive stance and regularly verifying the effectiveness of MFA sites and MFA blocking options through log-level data analysis, leading-edge marketers will bring increased transparency to the programmatic world.

This column was written by Tom Triscari, an economist at Lemonade Projects.

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.