Large Brands Are Still Advertising on Made-for-Advertising Websites After Industry Outcry

Almost a year after the industry outcry over made-for-advertising inventory and months since many ad-tech firms have devised solutions to address the problem, ads from large brands are still being served on spammy websites, new research from Adalytics has found.

Adalytics found examples of hundreds of large brands advertising on made-for-advertising websites, facilitated by most major ad-tech firms (a notable exception was The Trade Desk, which Adalytics did not observe sending ads on MFA websites). Many of these firms had announced tools to limit brands’ exposure to made-for-advertising sites after a report from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in June found 21% of impressions and 15% of ad spend in the study’s sample went to these websites. Of note, some ad-tech solutions to address MFA are relatively new, still haven’t fully launched, or apply to only some deal types, like private marketplaces.

MFA websites are defined by a high ad-to-content ratio, rapidly auto-refreshing ad placements, a high percentage of paid traffic sourcing, generic and non-unique content, and poorly designed websites, according to a definition put forth by the ANA, 4A’s, World Federation of Advertisers and Incorporated Society of British Advertisers in September. In practice, this means websites that are made to game programmatic systems and win ad dollars, and not actually attract readers, despite not being outright fraud.

“It wasn’t a huge surprise,” said a brand media buyer who participated in the study, but declined to speak on record because of sensitive industry relations. “The biggest frustration is the systematic failures in every level of the supply chain. You’ve got the big tech companies not being able to identify and take MFA out.”

Adalytics was able to conduct its study by using open-source data on the supply-side platform, demand-side platform, verification firm and agency behind a given ad placement. Adalytics analyzed ad placements on 22 websites that not only met the standards for MFA by the trade bodies’ definition but also verified by Jounce Media and DeepSee.io, media quality firms that the trade bodies consulted to learn about and define MFA.

Of note, the Adalytics study analyzed placements from Amazon’s DSP, a behemoth of ad spend that was not part of the ANA study. Adaltyics found Amazon placing ads on a variety of MFA websites.

Together, the research paints a picture of the difficulty of solving intractable problems in ad tech, where complex supply chains prevent any one actor from taking the blame.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Adalytics’ research highlights instances where brands’ ads ended up on MFA sites but shies away from giving any percentage of how often this happens for any particular brand, with a focus on open-source, observable data instead of using company log files.

However, Adalytics does this kind of work on behalf of clients. Using Adalytics, HP found that 20% to 25% of offsite inventory purchased via Amazon—that is Amazon ads targeted across the web and not on Amazon’s owned and operated websites—went to made-for-advertising websites, compared to on average less than 10% on other DSPs, said Freddie Liversidge, vp of global media at HP.

“What we’ve done as advertisers is make retail media not held to the same standards as we would with our other DSPs,” he said.

Offsite retail media is a new and growing channel of investments for brands, but one that often comes with less transparency than other media, ADWEEK has previously reported.

Adalytics focused mostly on Amazon, the largest retail media network by ad spend, in their report. Of note, Adalytics found that Amazon served ads from the same brand 121 times to one user and 90 times to another user, on made-for-advertising sites, which are known for auto-refreshing ads to serve the maximum number possible to audiences.

“[Retail media networks] have no incentive to do frequency caps,” said a second brand media buyer who participated in the Adalytics study, and said his brand was decreasing spend on retail media networks this year after finding poor performance. “It’s not their money. The have every incentive to arbitrage against me so they get more margin.”

Amazon said it employs strategies to help buyers avoid MFA.

“We maintain a high bar on the supply that is available for our advertisers and proactively block made-for-advertising inventory available through a combination of manual and automated processes,” an Amazon spokesperson told ADWEEK. “We also enable advertisers to decide where their ads appear through a mix of proprietary and third-party controls.”

But while buyers interviewed by ADWEEK expressed frustration with the tech partners and verification firms that did not prevent their ads from ending up on MFA sites, they also said that part of the problem lies with the buy-side itself, which doesn’t always apply the best strategies to ensure their spend goes to quality media. When buyers take these steps, inventory quality can improve — for example, HP was able to bring down the rate of MFA on its offsite Amazon buys to 9.8%, in line with other DSP partners, using an inclusion list.

But doing this kind of work requires laborious vetting and a potential for diminished reach.

“It’s a manual process and can take a long time to review websites,” said a third brand media buyer source, and former programmatic trader, on inclusion lists. “You end up with a list that looks deceptively small …. You’re trying to reach more people sometimes and that creates a false incentive. I don’t envy the people in the trenches.”