Solid article in the FT following up on the Fraud issues in advertising. To read the artlcle please click here. You will need to have a subscription or sign up.

My small piece focused on the issue that people talk a lot about fraud detection, as was Rocketfuel’s response, how much they detect, but the real key is to not fish in that pool of inventory in the first place.

‘Fighting fraud requires more than just developing better detection systems, says Marco Bertozzi of VivaKi, the digital ad buying division of Publicis. A big problem, he says, is that the entire advertising industry is too fixated on chasing cheap slots, even if that means “fishing in a cesspool”. Advertisers need to start looking much more closely at the quality of what they are buying, he says.’

The advertising community needs to take a stand and stop buying poor inventory under the guise of performance. Lets spell it out.

Advertiser Demand: I want cheaper CPMs and lower CPAs

Agency: Would you like to be brand safe and not risk having a Mercedes Benz issue?

Advertiser: Of course, have to be brand safe

Agency: Then I cant buy from these networks and deliver that CPM – which is it?