The Alliance for Audited Media recently launched a new, independent, third-party audit program for digital publishers as a key step in the evolving fight against digital advertising fraud.
Called the AAM Digital Publisher Audit, the initiative focuses on verifying publishers’ traffic sources by analyzing their business operations, traffic sourcing policies and monitoring website traffic. In response to challenges faced by buyers and sellers this year, AAM is offering the Digital Publisher Audits at no charge to AAM publisher clients through 2021. The goal is to rapidly grow the universe of audited media for buyers to buy.
Audited publishers are included on the AAM Audited Domain List, which can be used to build inclusion lists and prioritize publishers in DSPs. Additionally, AAM is working with the IAB Tech Lab to distribute the AAM list via its compliance registry, which will enable bidding on AAM-audited domains.
“AAM Digital Publisher Audits are unique because they differentiate quality publishers and give marketers a common signal to evaluate those publishers,” said Tom Drouillard, AAM CEO, president and managing director. “As a not-for-profit organization, we want to ensure that cost is not a barrier for widespread publisher adoption to maximize this opportunity for marketers.”
Recognizing that publisher audits are a key step in the evolving fight against digital advertising fraud, the Association of National Advertisers actively supported the effort by encouraging collaboration between the AAM, Media Rating Council and the Trustworthy Accountability Group to align their anti-fraud programs to create a complementary set of assurance solutions.
“The marketing industry has made significant progress in bringing transparency and accountability to digital media buying, but the war on ad fraud continues,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “We need a set of comprehensive solutions, and the AAM Digital Publisher Audit is a major step toward providing assurances at the publisher level.”
AAM provides marketers assurance that the audited sites they invest in are legitimately delivering human audiences. The AAM audit aligns with MRC and TAG programs, as it requires large publishers to use technology vendors accredited by the MRC for sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) detection. Publishers that successfully complete the audit may also earn independent validation for TAG’s Certified Against Fraud program.
AAM developed the audit with the support of more than 100 websites from nine major publishing companies in the U.S. and Canada. Among the properties participating in the development of the audit are Meredith Corporation, American City Business Journals and The Globe and Mail. A list of participating media properties and additional details about the Digital Publisher Audit are available on AAM’s website.
“Marketers now have a new tool to improve their performance by concentrating their investments in quality audited sites,” said Drouillard. “The program generates trust between marketers, agencies and publishers through independent audits.”
About the Aliance for Audited Media
The Alliance for Audited Media is the recognized leader in media verification across all brand platforms including web, mobile and print. Founded in 1914 as the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) to bring order and transparency to media, today we offer an avenue for buyers and sellers to connect, forge relationships and transact with trust by delivering authentic, credible data to the market.
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