The impact of mobile attribution fraud can be costly and significant for brands. In fact, top line results from a previous MMA survey suggests that 84% of marketers expect mobile ad fraud to continue being a significant problem. Over 60% think it will increase in the future, partly because their individual efforts can´t address the fundamental drivers of mobile fraud - strong incentives for perpetrators, lack of penalties and overall complexity of the mobile ad ecosystem.
That’s why the MMA has launched a a FREE attribution Fraud Assessment Tool. The tool provides marketers with an initial estimate of the amount of attribution fraud for app downloads based on an aggregated make-up of advertising on their partner networks. This directional understanding will allow marketers to take deliberate action to decrease the level of waste and get a better return on their marketing spend.
This extent of the fraud can be calculated based on a limited amount of data consisting primarily of the configuration of paid install data for a company’s mobile apps across the ad networks where the application is promoted.
Wasted Media:
Up to 40 to 50% of paid installs are fraudulent, meaning that they would have happened anyway, organically.
Misguided Attribution:
Potential false signals lead to inaccuracy in properly assessing how campaigns, channels, and optimization decisions are performing and subsequently to wrong re-allocation decisions.
A leading company added new partners to discover a downturn in performance. A fraud audit helped to uncover that 49% of the installs would have occurred organically and were therefore fraudulently attributed.
A worldwide telecommunications and fintech company realized that installations driven by their marketing campaigns didn’t provide the expected level of application activity subsequent to the new installation. A fraud audit helped them to determine that significant portion of the installs were manufactured as well as a series of other fraudulent behaviors including 1.5m misattributed installs.
A major gaming company became concerned that they were wasting significant amounts of their marketing budget to fraud. A fraud audit discovered that over 60% of the clicks analyzed and over 90% of installs they paid bounties for were fraudulent.
Fraudsters have developed a myriad of techniques to insert themselves into the mobile marketing ecosystem and steal the cost-per-install (CPI) or cost-per-engagement (CPE) bountie advertisers pay for driving conversions through their marketing campaigns. A significant element of mobile fraud relates to purposefully inaccurate appropriation of attribution of an installation and proximate driver of that installation.
Attribution fraud takes a number of different forms but the three most frequent methods are:
Click Flooding
Where the advertising signal is faked to overwhelm genuine click traffic and steal attribution credit.
Click Injection
Compromised applications are installed on a user’s device and inject fake clicks when an application install is imminent.
Manufactured Conversions
Those application installs that would have happened organically being credited to a source that didn’t cause that installation.
Complete the quick assessment tool and receive a report from Kochava helping you identify and take action to fight mobile ad fraud for your brand.
The MMA Mobile Fraud Bootcamp webinar series focused on how marketers can best protect your media investments by uncovering and mitigating mobile fraud, through Brand Safety best practices as well as how the impending changes to IDFA and the loss of third-party cookies will impact mobile advertising and attribution.
Q. What specific data points are used to conduct the mobile fraud assessment?
The attribution fraud assessment can be completed with a minimal amount of data. The required data includes at least 3 media partners with the associated paid install counts for each of those partners as well as the timeframe that the provided data covers.
Q. What will happen with data once the report has been issued?
The collected data points for the fraud assessment will be deleted approximately two weeks after the report has been sent to the requester. The data will be temporarily retained solely for the purpose of answering any questions from the requester.
Q. I am a customer of Kochava. Should I complete this assessment?
Given the variable nature of Kochava’s client relationships, we can not predetermine the extent to which you’ll benefit from receiving this report. Some Kochava customers may already receive similar information while others might find value in completing the assessment and getting a report.
Q. What will happen with the contact information that I provide?
Any contact information that you provide for the assessment will not be shared with any other organizations outside of the MMA and Kochava. Both the MMA and Kochava may contact participants for further discussions on mobile fraud.
Q. How many fraud assessments can I request to be completed for my company?
Only one fraud assessment request will be completed for each company that requests one.
Q. I’m interested in learning more about mobile fraud but not ready to use the Attribution Fraud tool? Do you have any other resources to share?
The MMA is in the process of creating content - in the form of a webinar series and guides, etc. - to help marketers better understand mobile fraud. Please provide your contact information to be notified of any content that we develop.
