How to avoid fake impressions

As we have discussed in class, those purchasing digital advertising space need to be cognizant of the risks of false impressions, whereby programmatic techniques are used to create the illusion of traffic to a page. This article highlights the flaws of the current traffic verification firms and processes and provides some ideas for how to avoid false impressions. It suggests that advertisers should work with verification services that separate human and "bot" or programmatic traffic and should utilize newer and more transparent advertising platforms that reach authentic human audiences. The article also proposes that new incentives and metrics be put in place to discourage the inflation caused by false impressions. It will be interesting to see how the advertising industry shifts to mitigate the issues caused by false impressions and "bot" traffic and is clearly an area that will increase in relevance as programmatic resources become more complex and broad reaching.

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/traffic-authentication-nettlesome-issue-ad-tech/309485/