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Mobile Fraud in VietnamIn collaboration between

MOBILE MARKETING ASSOCIATION and DECISION LAB

NOVEMBER 2019

Mobile Ad Fraud is amongst the top three challenges facing Vietnamese advertisers, who think they are not spending enough to combat the problem compared to the industry average.

The main cause is believed to be the lack of disincentives and penalties against the problem, as well as the lack of transparency due to the complex web of middlemen.

Vietnamese advertisers believe that they are most vulnerable towards traffic fraud whilst some claim to have been to be able to eliminate ad fraud of such categories.

Advertisers are seeking both internal and external solution to tackle the issue. MOAT is currently the most common provider for ad fraud prevention and detection solution.

The periodical analysis is a highly in-demand function but is currently underserved.

Vietnam advertisers are not satisfied with their current ad fraud solutions. The country’s advertisers support ideas on more industry’s help toward tackling the problem.

Executive Summary

3

To the best of your knowledge, how much of your mobile advertising budget is subject to ad fraud?

Marketers in Vietnam believe that their organisations are spending less than the industry. Many are still unsure about the matter

Question 4 Survey results, Vietnam: n = 152 Question 5 Survey results, Vietnam: n = 152

To the best of your knowledge, what is the industry average when it comes to mobile ad fraud? (% of mobile ad spend subject to fraud)

Only a few are unsure about their firm’s budgeton matters relating to mobile ad fraud

Vietnam on average is spending slightly less than the region

22%

22%

23%

11%

9%

14%

5%-10%

Less than 5%

10-20%

20-30%

More than 30%

Don’t know

14%

19%

14%

23%

14%

17%

5%-10%

Less than 5%

10-20%

20-30%

More than 30%

Don’t know

Vietnam 18%

Asia 21%

Vietnam 16%

Asia 17%

Weighted avg. Weighted avg.

4

7 of 10 expect mobile ad fraud to increase or stay the same in future

Mobile ad fraud is one of the most prioritised challenges for companies

Overall, do you expect mobile ad fraud to increase, stay the same or decrease in 2019?


Please check the three mobile advertising challenges that are the highest priorities for your company right now?

Mobile ad fraud - an increasing threat is among the top 3 challenges for marketers in Vietnam when it comes to mobile advertising

0%

9%

9%

20%

25%

28%

33%

37%

38%

39%

43%

Other (please specify)

Walled gardens

GDPR and privacy issues

Challenges with reliable attribution

Difficulty to optimize mobile ad spend in real time

Poor quality of data that is used for targeting in mobile

Low ad viewability in mobile

Poor quality of data that is used for attribution in mobile…

Mobile Ad fraud

Brand safety / challenges with brand safe ad placement

Lack of trustworthy 3rd party measurement

Vietnam Asia

11%

20%

10%

33%

25%

Decreasesignificantly

Decreasesomewhat

Stay thesame

Increasesomewhat

Increasesignificantly

Vietnam

10%

27%

10%

36%

17%

Decreasesignificantly

Decreasesomewhat

Stay thesame

Increasesomewhat

Increasesignificantly

Asia

5

How much do you agree with each of the following statements when it comes to the causes of mobile ad fraud?

Question 20 Survey results

Main causes of fraud include: lack of penalties, lack of transparency and minimal traffic source monitoring

The lack of transparency and a clear system to penaliseperpetrators have caused the rise of mobile ad fraud

Strongly agree (1) Agree somewhat (2) Disagree somewhat (3) Strongly disagree (4) Weighted avg.

1.55

1.63

1.69

1.77

1.82

2.12

2.21

Vietnam Asia

1.73

1.70

1.94

1.94

2.00

2.24

2.306%

9%

18%

18%

27%

39%

42%

67%

64%

64%

70%

52%

52%

42%

18%

21%

18%

12%

21%

9%

15%

9%

6%

Agencies are not doing their due diligence and don’t require transparency from their partners (n=33)

Marketers are not doing their due diligence and don’t require transparency from their partners (n=33)

Perpetrators have an incentive to continue evolving their methods (n=33)

Marketers use campaign metrics that are easily gamed (CPM, CTR etc) byperpetrators (n=33)

Publishers, networks and other media companies don’t do enough to monitor the sources of their traffic (n=33)

There are too many middlemen and there is lack of data sharing andtransparency (n=33)

There are no clear penalties or disincentives against ad fraud (n=33)

6

Please review the following categories of mobile ad fraud. How high is the risk of each of them to your company?

Marketers tend to worry more about traffic fraud, although they see misrepresentation and attribution as areas of concern

Question 15 Survey results, Question 16 Survey results,

To what extent would you say that you have managed to protect your business from these types of mobile ad fraud through your efforts?

Traffic fraud poses the highest fraud, followed by misrepresentation fraud, and then attribution fraud

Over a third of the traffic fraud was claimed to have been completedly eliminated

2.44

2.32

2.33

Weighted avg.

45%

41%

38%

High risk (3) Med risk (2) Low risk (1)

Traffic Fraudn=55

Misrepresentation Fraudn=54

Attribution Fraudn=56

Completely Partly Not at all

38%

36%

47%

56%

61%

49%

6%

4%

4%

25%

19%

35%

64%

70%

60%

11%

11%

6%

21%

20%

27%

69%

72%

67%

10%

8%

7%

Vietnam Asia

2.51

2.42

2.32

Vietnam Asia

Misrepresentation fraud: attempts to falsifysite or ad-specific info. These include: ad

stacking or device hijacking, falsified device/location/cookie-level info, domain spoofing,

ad injection and cookie fraud (n=56)

Traffic fraud: Seeks to boost impressions, clicks or other website activity counts.

Typically, traffic fraud consists of nonhuman traffic and human-generated inflation. (n=55)

Attribution fraud: occurs when one party takes credit for conversions that it didn’t influence. This includes: cookie stuffing,

human-generated inflation, device hijacking. (n=55)

7

Here is a list of types of mobile ad fraud that we have heard from other marketers. Which of them do you consider more dangerous to your business? Please check all that apply

Question 17 Survey results, Vietnam: n = 55

Data fraud, cookie stuffing, adware traffic are more dangerous than others. Lesser are SIVT, incentivised browsing and GIVT

When it comes to specific fraud methods, data fraud, cookie stuffing and adware traffic are seen as the most dangerous

55%51% 49%

42% 40%33%

24% 24% 22%

13% 11% 11%

59% 59%54%

48% 48%

40%

26%33%

29% 30%24% 24%

Data fraud(including

location data)

Cookiestuffing

Adwaretraffic/adinjection

Ad stacking Ad injection Domainspoofing

Browser pre-rendering

Pixel stuffing Datacentertraffic

SophisticatedInvalid Traffic

(SIVT)

Incentivizedbrowsing

GeneralInvalid Traffic

(GIVT)

Vietnam Asia

8

What is the contribution of each of the following parties, when it comes to helping you reduce ad fraud from your mobile media spend?

1 in 5 are still struggling with mobile ad fraud


Overall, how would you evaluate the effectiveness of all your efforts when it comes to preventing mobile ad fraud?

Marketers believe that their own brand and media team is contributing the most to reduce fraud

1 of 5 has managed to force fraud to a level below the industry avg while the other fifth are struggling with the issue

13% 23% 36% 18% 11%0%

50%

We have reduced fraud

in our advertising, but we still

have work to do

We have significantly

reduced fraud to a level that

is below industry averages

We are struggling with

ad fraud in advertising

We are unclear about

the size of fraud in our advertising

We have completely eliminated fraud from

our advertising

Our mobile measurement partner10%

Our media partners11%

Our internal data and analytics team

18%

Our internal brand and media team27%

Our agency partners17%

Our ad verification partners17% 8% 24% 45% 13% 10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Asia

Vietnam

9

A combination of measures are in place to address the issue:external solutions, transparency from partners and analytic tools

Which of the following measures has your company taken to address mobile ad fraud? Please check all that apply.


43% 43% 42%

30% 30%

25% 25%

19%15%

55%

48% 46% 44%

36%

30%

37%

28%

16%

We use a third-party validation

solution

We require a lotmore transparency

from our mediapartners in terms of

their traffic andtheir own initiatives

to address fraud

We use our owndata and analytics

to assess,benchmark and

monitor suspiciouspatterns for mobile

fraud

We systematicallyupdate our

blacklists for mediabuying

We have assignedspecific fraud

related KPIs to ourmedia agency and

media partners

We use SSPs thatguarantee clean

inventory

We participate inindustry studiesand initiatives to

identify bestpractices

We vote with ourdollars (reduce

spending in areasthat are lesstransparent,

eliminate buys thatshow high shares of

ad fraud etc)

We invest time andresources to betterleverage blockchain

and other newapproaches

To address ad fraud, companies turned to external forces such as hiring solution vendors and requiring more transparency from their media partners. Not many are exploring new technologies and approaches (eg blockchain)

Vietnam Asia

2.0

2.22.0

2.5

1.8

2.32.4

2.12.2

2.32.2

10

In which of the following areas is mobile ad fraud higher, compared to average, based on your experience?1

Question 14 Survey results,

Many are unfamiliar with the risk of fraud in static-display. Social, ad networks, mobile in-app and mobile web are percieved to be the most risky area

Overall, marketers regard buying programmatic and directly from publishers as the safest approaches, in contrast to ad networks

Weighted avg. VN % of respondents answering “don’t know”

Campaign approach Buying method Platform type Content format

1 Respondents assessed each category using the following options: Higher than avg. (3), Average (2), Lower than avg. (1), and Don’t know

2.1 2.01.9

2.3

1.9

2.3 2.3

2.0

2.3 2.22.4

2.2

Mobile data

Performance campaigns

Mobile in-app

Brand campaigns

Program-matic

Ad networks

Publisher direct

Mobile web

Video Static -display

Social

Mean

6% 4% 7% 4% 4% 7% 2% 6% 2% 9% 2%

n=54 n=53 n=54 n=55 n=55 n=54 n=54 n=52 n=55 n=54 n=54

Weighted avg. Asia

47%

9%

18%

10%4%

12%

11

Specifically, does your company use now or do you plan to use in the future a dedicated external vendor to help detect, monitor and prevent mobile ad fraud?


Yes, we currently use an external ad fraud prevention vendor

No, we don’t currently use one but we plan to use in the next 6

months

No, we don’t currently use one, but we have developed our own

solution


months

No, we don’t currently have a solution (internal

or external) and don´t have a plan yet.


months

Over half of the respondents are currently using solutions (mainly external) to help combat ad fraud while over a third are planning to do so the next 6-18months. Only 1 in 10 of the companies are not considering a solution

To help with the fight against ad fraud, 9 of 10 marketers are hiring external experts or are planning to do so in the near future

Not consideringPlanning to useUsing a solution

41%

9%

24%

13%

3%

11%

Vietnam Asia

46%

33%29%

21%17%

13%

4%0%

8%

58%

47%

34%

14%

23%

7%11%

4%

18%

Moat Integral Ad Science Double Verify Oracle Appsflyer WhiteOps Kochava Pixalate Other (pleasespecify)

12

Which of the following companies do you work with in terms of detecting and preventing mobile ad fraud? Please check all that apply.


1 in 2 companies use at least one of these four major providers: MOAT, Integral Ad Science, Double Verify and Oracle

MOAT is most the popular vendor to detect and prevent fraud in VN

Miaozhen, Pinetech

Vietnam Asia

13

Which of the following services does your anti-ad fraud solution offer to your company? Please check all that apply.

Periodic analysis is a desired featured that is not widely offered in Vietnam


Which of the following services would you expect from an anti-ad fraud solution? Please check all that apply.

About 70% are offered instant fraud investigation and proactive blocking of potential threads

Vietnam cares more about getting the analysis on ad fraud than blocking fraud actively

0%

23%

31%

46%

50%

65%

0%

40%

52%

58%

65%

73%


Quality index and blacklists of mediacompanies

Periodic analysis (monthly, weekly, orquarterly) of ad fraud trends in your…

Comparison of ad fraud in your mediaspend in relation to industry benchmarks

Proactive blocking of fraudulentimpressions

Real time analysis and flagging of ad fraudin your online media spend

0%

46%

52%

57%

65%

76%

0%

60%

71%

59%

62%

82%


Quality index and blacklists of mediacompanies

Proactive blocking of fraudulentimpressions

Comparison of ad fraud in your mediaspend in relation to industry benchmarks

Periodic analysis (monthly, weekly, orquarterly) of ad fraud trends in your…

Real time analysis and flagging of ad fraudin your online media spend

Vietnam AsiaVietnam Asia

15%

4%

58%

77%

77%

27%

8%

19%

12%

4%

14

Overall, how satisfied are you of your anti-ad fraud solution in terms of each of the following?

Few marketers are completely satisfied with their anti-fraud solution to the extent of not willing to recommend them to others


How likely would you recommend your anti-ad fraud vendor to another company? (NPS: Net Promoter Score)

Many are yet to be completely satisfied by their solution’s capability in detecting, taking actions and providing learnings

A negative NPS of -58 signals that vendors must do something differently

3

7

0 Not likely at all

1

2

4

5

6

8

9

10 Extremely likely

Provide insights to help you stay ahead of

new types of ad fraud

Proactively block fraud from your

media spend

Detect fraud in your media

spend

15%

27%

15%

12%

8%

4%

4%

15%

21%

17%

16%

60%

73%

68%

19%

6%

16%

4%

1%

-58 -6

Vietnam NPS Asia NPS

Somewhatsatisfied

Completelysatisfied

Somewhatdissatisfied

Completelydissatisfied

Detractors (0-6) Passives (7-8) Promoters (9-10)

5%

4%

33%

45%

13%

15

Blockchain is thought to be potential in combating the issues despite the market not understanding the technology fully

How familiar are you with blockchain on a scale of 1 to 100?


Do you think that blockchain technology will help solve the fraud and transparency problem in mobile advertising?

Marketers’ familiarity level with the blockchain technology is low

9 in 10 believe that blockchain could pave the way for new solutions against ad fraud

No, I think blockchain will never reach industry-wide application

Yes, the potential is there, but Industry wideapplication will take years

Yes, the market will soon be ready to implement blockchain solutions against fraud

Maybe, although I am not clear about how exactly

No, I think blockchain is overhyped and does not solve the problem 6%

6%

30%

39%

18%

100%33%

40% 100%

Familiarity Barometer

Vietnam

Asia

Respondents Average Familiarity level Vietnam Asia

16

Here are some ideas for education and tools that other marketers believe that would help their efforts to stay ahead of mobile ad fraud. Which of the following would be valuable to you and your company?


More education on the subject (guide, reports, benchmarks etc), self and external reviews were set to be key to stay ahead of fraud

0%

27%

27%

30%

39%

42%

45%

45%

45%

48%

52%

0%

36%

39%

39%

35%

49%

59%

49%

49%

60%

54%


Templates for RFI /scoring tool to help select an mobile anti-fraud solution

Validation and assessment of economic value of anti-fraud solutions

A guidance report about blockchain and its applications in ad fraud prevention

Contract language to manage media buying in terms of expected reporting anddata transparency

The future of Mobile Ad Fraud: Annual predictions from industry experts

A self-assessment tool to help you benchmark your exposure to fraud.

Independent review of anti-fraud solutions and vendors

Benchmarks about the average size of mobile ad fraud.

State of Mobile ad Fraud report: Key types of fraud now and how to prevent them

CMO’s guide to Mobile Ad Fraud

Vietnam Asia

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