Tag Archives: ad fraud

You’re Probably Laundering Oligarch Bucks

Posted on Monday, 16 December 2019 9:42 am by markpilip

It seems the ad fraud perpetrated by the adtech industry on advertisers (by design) might help some other folks out. Like Russian oligarchs with their stolen loot. It is way easier to setup advertising networks to launder one’s stolen dollars … Continue reading →

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Buy direct

Posted on Sunday, 10 February 2019 1:14 pm by markpilip

There’s only one correct way to buy ads, and that’s direct from the publisher. If you buy any other way you’ll pay too much in adtech tax or get scammed buying something that’s not what you think it is. Probably … Continue reading →

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2.8 billion years of evolution, down the drain

Posted on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 8:40 am by markpilip

Someday, as expressed in this article by Shelly Palmer, AI and technology will be so good it will be impossible to tell truth from fakes. In other words, we won’t be able to trust our eyes and ears any more. … Continue reading →

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Digital Marketing Tips From El Al

Posted on Wednesday, 24 January 2018 8:57 am by markpilip

El Al airlines has never been bombed and only hijacked once. This in spite of being a constant target for well-funded and persistent criminals. An enviable track record. How do they do it? Isaac Yeffet, El Al’s former head of … Continue reading →

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Zirconium: The Holdco You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted on Tuesday, 23 January 2018 5:30 pm by markpilip

The slippery nature of online advertising gets better (or worse) all the time. The latest comes from Confiant’s CTO, Jerome Dangu. Turns out there’s a fake agency holdco of sorts, with 28 fake ad agencies under the Zirconium umbrella. They were … Continue reading →

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Improve Ad Performance With Slow, Deep, Breathing

Posted on Tuesday, 9 January 2018 8:01 am by markpilip

My mission for 2018 is to help marketers improve their digital marketing performance. It’s a mess out there. The latest example? News UK (publisher of The Sun and Times of London) finds that SSPs were still offering their inventory for … Continue reading →

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Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Posted on Friday, 29 December 2017 9:36 am by markpilip

Market only to humans. If you only change one thing about how you undertake your marketing in 2018, let it be this one. According to the U.S. Census bureau, there were about 252.8 million adult (18+) humans in the U.S. … Continue reading →

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Justifying the Weird

Posted on Thursday, 7 December 2017 8:30 am by markpilip

What’s the success rate for people trying to evade marketing surveillance on the web? I think it’s zero. Check out the story of Ross William Ulbricht AKA “Dread Pirate Roberts” of Silk Road infamy. He was alleged to be responsible … Continue reading →

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Another Day, More Digital Fraud

Posted on Wednesday, 22 November 2017 9:20 am by markpilip

How many of your ad tech and mar tech technology providers called you in September and October and said “Hey, we’re seeing some odd things happening and we think maybe there’s some new fraud taking place. Maybe you should cut … Continue reading →

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Looks like some of the shady players in adtech (a large group from which to choose) are resorting to social engineering to get around ads.txt. What should you add to ads.txt? Nothing. By the way, I think an ads.txt file … Continue reading →

Posted on Thursday, 2 November 2017 9:12 am by markpilip | Comments Off on Adtech Social Engineering