Programmatic advertising will continue to suffer from issues around brand safety and fraud until the bad actors come under greater scrutiny. That’s the view of Chris Liversidge, managing director of QueryClick. In November last year, the company surveyed 150 CMOs at major brands, each with a revenue of over £100m a year, to find out how they felt about ad fraud.

Eight out of 10 respondents said they were worried that their current programmatic processes could lead to their ads appearing on web pages related to offensive content such as terror-related activities, while 42 per cent said they had lost trust in programmatic advertising as a result of fraud, while 20 per cent said they planned to reduce their programmatic spend. Of these, 39 per cent said the principal reason was because there was a lack of transparency over which sites their ads would be placed on.

Speaking after last week’s revelation that ads from over 300 companies, including Adidas, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Under Armour and LinkedIn, were found on YouTube channels promoting white nationalists, Nazis, paedophilia, conspiracy theories and North Korean propaganda, Liversidge said:

“Programmatic buying is on the rise due to the inherent abundance and efficiency it offers advertisers, but concerns around fraud and viewability remain around this still developing area. Many brands are left in the dark as to where their ads will actually appear due to a lack of transparency from their ad buying agencies. This represents unparalleled opportunities for fraud, and the damage to a brands’ reputation can be huge.

“It is clear, brands are starting to call for a stamp-down on the worst excesses, but what is really needed is oversight and authority over the bad actors. With major publishers taking firm action to combat fraud, we expect to see more collaboration between brands, publishers and industry bodies. Brands using programmatic advertising should seek out independent, authoritative voices such as Jicwebs, the IAB or independent digital marketing consultancies, who can form working groups to have their voice heard and guide them through a transparent approach. Only then can we expect programmatic to make a better impression than it has to date.”