AdSparency
The online advertising market has recently reached the 500 billion dollar mark. To accommodate the need to match a user with the highest bidder at a fraction of a second, it has moved towards a complex, automated and often opaque model that involves numerous agents and intermediaries. Stimulated by the lack of transparency, but also the enormous potential profits, bad actors have found ways to circumvent restrictions, and generate substantial revenue that can support websites with objectionable or even illegal content.
In an effort to increase the transparency of the ad ecosystem, we publish the "Ad Transparency" Web service. This service enables stakeholders (e.g. marketers, agencies, advertisers) to better understand how revenue flows across Web entities and to prevent ad fraud.
Most Used Identifiers
There are numerous websites that declare the same publisher identifier as
DIRECT. However, according to the documentation,
such identifiers indicate that the content owner directly controls the advertising
account. Misrepresenting the identifier type can be a form of ad fraud.
The most common identifiers declared as DIRECT are:
| # | Issuing Ad Network | Identifier | Issued To | Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | conversantmedia.com | 100141 |
33Across | 42,412 |
| 2 | vi.ai | 987349031605160 |
OutBrain | 41,044 |
| 3 | adform.com | 1942 |
Rich Audience Technologies | 40,702 |
| 4 | onetag.com | 5d4e109247a89f6 |
ConnectAd Realtime Inc | 40,660 |
| 5 | lijit.com | 244287 |
ConnectAd Realtime Inc | 40,587 |
Top Pooling Ad Networks
There are some ad networks that either willingly facilitate identifier pooling or they don't properly review the use of their identifiers. That is, the identifiers they issue are used to form pools.
The ad networks that enable pooling the most are:
Pooling Revenue Flows
With ad inventory pooling, publishers might be able to get a share of the ad revenue from multiple publisher identifiers.
The revenue flow from popular ad networks towards fake news websites is:
Most Common Hidden Intermediaries
Some media companies might try to deceptively register as a publisher in other ad networks in order to charge higher prices and then resell ads.
The most common ad networks that are registered as a PUBLISHER are: