Integral Ad Science (IAS) has expanded its Made for Advertising (MFA) AI-driven solution to provide advertisers with a solution that can measure and optimise against MFA and Ad Clutter sites and drive maximum efficacy across the programmatic buying process.
MFA sites are web pages built to conduct ad arbitrage and feature low quality content (e.g. spam sites, or ad farms) created to serve ads, whereas Ad Clutter sites feature high ad density and high ad-to-content ratio, leading to lower performance.
The platform uses the technology and additional signals built into its core platform to intelligently identify MFA and Ad Clutter sites, as opposed to a static exclusion list. The AI-driven site measurement and optimisation solution will be available globally beginning in Q2 2024.
Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS, said with the growth of MFA sites, global advertisers need safeguards to avoid ad arbitrage and low-performing, high-ad-density sites while optimising for media quality and performance
According to the ANA’s 2023 Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study, MFA websites counted towards 21% of study impressions and 15% of ad spend, illustrating a significant opportunity for advertisers and agencies to better understand where their impressions are delivered and to optimise away from MFA sites to reduce media waste.
IAS analysis from over 40 global agencies and brands found traffic served on sites classified as non-MFA have a +278% better conversion rate than traffic served on sites classified as MFA. Further analysis by IAS found that quality media was more cost efficient than sites classified as MFA, delivering lower cost-per-conversion by 63%.
The IAS MFA Measurement and Optimisation solution supports the ANA’s definition of MFA and has been trained against Sincera’s deep library of metadata along with Jounce Media’s widely adopted list of MFA domains. The solution leverages supply chain data and IAS-measured site characteristics including ad-to-content ratio, total number of ads, auto-refresh ads, refresh rate, traffic source, and autoplay video ads to report on MFA Ads, MFA Rate, Ad Clutter Ads, and Ad Clutter Rate.
Chris Kane, president of Jounce Media, said: “The industry should not conflate Made For Advertising supply with other forms of low quality advertising experiences. MFA publishers operate an ad arbitrage business model that has no place in the programmatic supply chain.”
“Separately, media companies that produce original content and attract organic visitors sometimes engage in aggressive monetization techniques that dilute the value of advertising. By clearly distinguishing MFA supply from ad clutter, IAS is giving media buyers the tools they need to make informed decisions about inventory quality,” Kane added.
By partnering with IAS, publishers can also garner greater insight into their own inventory with solutions for how to improve quality and drive greater engagement with advertisers. For publishers identified as MFA or Ad Clutter, they’ll also have greater visibility into their inventory quality. IAS MFA measurement promotes a healthier media ecosystem by enabling publishers to improve the quality of their properties and drive greater engagement with their advertisers.