Fraudsters are smart and have been around since the dawn of time. They follow the dollars and opportunities with a driven persistence to cheat others for gain. Fraud increases where there is opportunity, and CTV ad buyers need to be vigilant.

Connected TV’s (CTV) ability to bridge linear and digital mediums has made it appealing to both consumers and advertisers. With the worldwide COVID pandemic and shelter/social distancing directives in place, CTV’s growth has outpaced expectations. This increase is driving more advertising spend and, therefore, more fraud interest. CTV fraud commonly occurs with impersonator bots, app fraud and device fraud, but there will be more ways in the future.

CTV platforms and third-party companies are combating fraud, but buyers need to be armed with knowledge on the questions to ask and the strategies to take. Third-party services are capable of verifying and tracking ad performance. These services protect your buys against fraud, but also offer data to improve the effectiveness of your buys. A few standouts in this space are DeviceAtlas, DoubleVerify and White Ops.

If you’re buying with a partner or publisher, you also need to make sure to ask them the right questions – ensuring that you can trust them with your ad dollars. Some important questions to ask are:

• What tactics do you offer to combat fraud?
• As a CTV partner, do you have 1:1 publisher relationships?
• Can you provide ALL sources of inventory available on your platform?
• Would any of my inventory be sourced from the Open Exchange?
• Can you share an upfront list of providers where inventory can run?
• Are you able to target with first-, second- and third-party data?
• Are you able to track location data?
• Do you provide a dashboard where buyers can monitor delivery on a granular level?

Fraud follows spending, and all media buys – including CTV – need to be monitored daily. It is imperative you work with partners you can trust. That can answer the questions above and help you continuously monitor against fraudulent activity. At the end of the day, media buyers need to work with CTV partners who specialize in CTV fraud prevention.