PubMatic Extends Fraud-Free Program to CTV

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PubMatic, a sell-side platform that delivers superior outcomes for digital advertising, today announced a fraud-free program for premium CTV and OTT inventory. This announcement brings confidence in quality to buyers of omnichannel inventory — extending PubMatic’s fraud-free program with a money-back guarantee for demand-side partners if fraud is verified on PubMatic’s platform. The program is designed to expand scale and engagement opportunities for buyers and promote the development of the rapidly growing CTV sector, from a limited number of top-tier channels and apps, to a broader range of channels and apps with unique high value audiences.

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“We see tremendous upside potential in the transition from linear TV to connected TV, but fraud concerns have prevented some buyers from fully benefitting. We are confident in the quality of inventory on the PubMatic platform, and our fraud-free program should give buyers confidence to bid on quality CTV inventory at scale. Publishers are creating a wealth of new premium TV content and we are attempting to remove the major challenges and risks. PubMatic is helping DSPs, agencies, and advertisers take advantage of the dramatic increase in opportunities to engage the huge numbers of viewers shifting to CTV,” said Paulina Klimenko, Chief Growth Officer at PubMatic.

According to Innovid, CTV inventory volume has increased by 60% year-over-year as more viewers shift away from linear TV and embrace digital video channels. However, many buyers continue to buy from a small number of CTV publishers due to concerns over quality and fraud. PubMatic’s fraud-free program aims to enable buyers to embrace the full potential of programmatic bidding, where efficiency and control do not need to be traded off against each other.

With the growth of the sector, CTV-related fraud schemes are on the upswing. According to eMarketer, in recent months a 161% year-over-year increase in fraudulent CTV ad impressions has been reported, with about 22% of impressions being served as invalid traffic. PubMatic believes the full potential of programmatic CTV can only be realized when buyers have confidence that their investments will reach real consumers within their intended contextual environments.

PubMatic employs a rigorous inventory review process for publishers across all platforms and formats (mobile, desktop, digital video and CTV). Leveraging a combination of expert human analysis, proprietary and third-party fraud detection tools, PubMatic vets publishers prior to onboarding and implements pre-bid and post-bid protections to detect and filter out invalid traffic and other nefarious activity, and has historically achieved low fraud levels. Now, by extending its fraud-free program to CTV and OTT inventory, PubMatic aims to give buyers the confidence to transact on high-quality, transparent CTV inventory at scale. The opportunity is evident: A recent case study showed that a PubMatic agency customer was able to grow OTT reach 14X by accessing inventory through unified auction vs a tag integration.

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