About Invalid traffic (IVT)

Invalid traffic (IVT) is traffic that is not generated by potential consumers or traffic that does not allow proper measurement of user behavior/engagement. General invalid traffic involves all sorts of fake traffic and is rather simple to identify: bots, spiders, crawlers, non-browser user-agent headers etc. Sophisticated invalid traffic is mostly fraudulent and more difficult to detect: bots, spiders or crawlers masquerading as legitimate users; hijacked devices, ad tags or creatives; incentivized manipulation of measurements etc.

How Equativ detects and filters invalid traffic

Equativ has integrated the product suite of the ad verification, bot detection and cybersecurity firm HUMAN to detect and filter invalid traffic:

• all traffic (i.e. display, video and server side bidding traffic) is scanned before serving an impression; CTV and SSAI environments are scanned as well
• if fraud is detected, the given ad call does not result in any impression, i. e. this invalid traffic is filtered
• the correlation between the ad call and the final impression is monitored; in case of major discrepancies, tag evasion may be occurring, i. e. some traffic is attempting to evade the verification process
• all applied filtering criteria are dynamic, i. e. they are verified continuously - for instance, an IP address may be considered as invalid traffic at the moment, but may be considered as normal traffic when it is reassigned to a legitimate traffic source by the ISP
• the technology leverages measurement data of all other HUMAN (formerly WhiteOps) clients and products

FAQ

What is invalid traffic?

Invalid traffic (IVT) is traffic that is not generated by potential consumers or traffic that does not allow proper measurement of user behavior/engagement. Equativ leverages the Media Rating Council standards as reference for invalid traffic identification.  

What does Equativ do to detect and filter invalid traffic?

Equativ has integrated the product suite of the ad verification, bot detection and cybersecurity firm HUMAN to detect and filter invalid traffic. With HUMAN's technology, traffic is scanned both before and after the impression occurs, covering all devices, formats, and buying models, including CTV/OTT integrations. Read more in chapter “How Equativ detects and filters invalid traffic” above.  

How do buyers and publishers benefit from invalid traffic detection and filtering?

Buyers (DSPs, trading desks and agencies) benefit from the MRC-accredited HUMAN (formerly WhiteOps) technology, a leading tool on the market, to ensure none of their budget goes towards invalid traffic; verification also includes CTV and SSAI environments. Publishers leveraging Equativ RTB+ benefit from curating and filtering their traffic from any invalid traffic to maximize its selling potential in both programmatic and direct campaigns; the technology ensures publisher legitimacy to avoid being blocked unjustly or asked for invalid traffic refunds;

Is there any additional pricing?

No, invalid traffic detection and filtering is free of charge and is enabled if you are using RTB+ in your network at Equativ (see question “How is invalid traffic detection enabled in my network at Equativ?” below); 

Which traffic is being scanned for invalid traffic?

All of Equativ's RTB traffic is scanned, across devices, formats, and buying models, including CTV/OTT integrations. However, direct campaign traffic is not subject to scanning. In case of publishers using Equativ's direct campaign and RTB monetization, only RTB traffic is monitored for invalid activity (traffic curation).  

How is invalid traffic detection enabled in my network at Equativ?

Invalid traffic detection is enabled automatically if your network uses RTB.

Can I find out by myself which traffic has been filtered and why?

No. There is no dashboard or report for Equativ customers to see which traffic has been filtered and why. Sharing sensitive fraud detection data is not possible for security reasons. However, in some very specific cases, Equativ may be able to share aggregated-level HUMAN (formerly WhiteOps) reporting. See next question below.  

A buyer sent me an IVT report of my traffic from another provider. Can I benefit from Equativ’s HUMAN (formerly WhiteOps) integration in handling the situation?

Yes. Please provide the associated context and the report to your main point of contact at Equativ who will forward it to Equativ's quality team; the team will investigate what might have occurred, and can provide aggregated-level reporting from HUMAN (formerly WhiteOps) demonstrating the traffic has been scanned and curated from IVT traffic.  

Is scanning of invalid traffic compliant with GDPR regulations?

Yes. The lawful basis for processing personal data when scanning invalid traffic is the “legitimate interest”; user consent is not required.