Uber's lawsuit against Fetch is the wake-up call that the sleepy industry needs
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 9:00 am
Uber has decided to sue Fetch Media , an agency belonging to the Dentsu group , for click fraud. The technology platform has accused the agency of billing for clicks that never occurred on its ads.
The service that allows passengers to be transported using private vehicles uncovered the alleged fraud after asking the agency to remove its ads from the Breitbart News site and its associated portals, popularly known for its support of Donald Trump .
The company found that despite this withdrawal, there was no decrease in the number of downloads of its application. This was the starting point of the investigation carried out by Uber .
The conclusion reached was that the agency had been charging for clicks armenia phone number on invisible ads, as well as for downloads that were not attributable to Fetch Media. This is why Uber has decided to sue the agency, requesting $40 million in damages.
It is now up to the courts (specifically one in San Francisco) to decide whether Fetch Media has actually misrepresented the effectiveness of mobile ads.
From the advertising industry's point of view, this case should highlight the need for increased awareness of the problem of fraud in online advertising . And this brings us to some truths that we do not like, but which it is time to face.
The first step is to recognize that many brands are losing millions of dollars on advertising that is not being seen by anyone, or that is damaging their brand by appearing in unsafe environments.
Recognizing this point means accepting that the advertising industry has been too tolerant for too long of inadequate standards.
How to address ad fraud?
The reason ad fraud continues to exist may be that we have a very limited understanding of the problem at hand, something that is related to the inadequate response adopted by the industry.
Instead of launching an in-depth investigation, most agencies simply added a section to their clients' reports, detailing the results of their campaigns such as the number of impressions, visibility, whether the ad was displayed in a safe environment and whether there were suspicions of fraud.
A totally inadequate response if we take into account that there are more than 30 types of advertising fraud . Added to this is the great confusion that exists when paying for verification systems that are not translating into sales .
We need to be aware that we have lost a link in the chain between the quality of impression purchases and their optimization.
This doesn't mean that agencies are misleading their clients. They are simply at a loss as to how to respond to the ever-increasing number of issues. Agencies check whether their clients' ads appear on safe sites or not. They use this information to tell brands whether or not they should suspect ad fraud. The problem is that they don't offer any insight into whether or not the traffic is fraudulent .
One thing we need to be clear about is that click fraud doesn't only occur when a domain is fake . Legitimate sites can also arise when we encounter fake traffic or click farms based on machine learning .
This leads us to a very clear conclusion: without a clear effort and objective, the rate of advertising fraud that is being reported to customers is underestimated.
The service that allows passengers to be transported using private vehicles uncovered the alleged fraud after asking the agency to remove its ads from the Breitbart News site and its associated portals, popularly known for its support of Donald Trump .
The company found that despite this withdrawal, there was no decrease in the number of downloads of its application. This was the starting point of the investigation carried out by Uber .
The conclusion reached was that the agency had been charging for clicks armenia phone number on invisible ads, as well as for downloads that were not attributable to Fetch Media. This is why Uber has decided to sue the agency, requesting $40 million in damages.
It is now up to the courts (specifically one in San Francisco) to decide whether Fetch Media has actually misrepresented the effectiveness of mobile ads.
From the advertising industry's point of view, this case should highlight the need for increased awareness of the problem of fraud in online advertising . And this brings us to some truths that we do not like, but which it is time to face.
The first step is to recognize that many brands are losing millions of dollars on advertising that is not being seen by anyone, or that is damaging their brand by appearing in unsafe environments.
Recognizing this point means accepting that the advertising industry has been too tolerant for too long of inadequate standards.
How to address ad fraud?
The reason ad fraud continues to exist may be that we have a very limited understanding of the problem at hand, something that is related to the inadequate response adopted by the industry.
Instead of launching an in-depth investigation, most agencies simply added a section to their clients' reports, detailing the results of their campaigns such as the number of impressions, visibility, whether the ad was displayed in a safe environment and whether there were suspicions of fraud.
A totally inadequate response if we take into account that there are more than 30 types of advertising fraud . Added to this is the great confusion that exists when paying for verification systems that are not translating into sales .
We need to be aware that we have lost a link in the chain between the quality of impression purchases and their optimization.
This doesn't mean that agencies are misleading their clients. They are simply at a loss as to how to respond to the ever-increasing number of issues. Agencies check whether their clients' ads appear on safe sites or not. They use this information to tell brands whether or not they should suspect ad fraud. The problem is that they don't offer any insight into whether or not the traffic is fraudulent .
One thing we need to be clear about is that click fraud doesn't only occur when a domain is fake . Legitimate sites can also arise when we encounter fake traffic or click farms based on machine learning .
This leads us to a very clear conclusion: without a clear effort and objective, the rate of advertising fraud that is being reported to customers is underestimated.