Dear Tech Support: Is ‘guaranteed fraud-free’ programmatic worth the price tag?

Dear Tech Support:

Our Agency is pushing us to use a premium-rate programmatic service, which they say is ‘guaranteed fraud-free’. But the difference in price is pretty steep. How do I justify paying that extra expense to my penny-pinching CFO?

- High Flyer 

Hello High Flyer, 

I’d ask you, how valuable is a robot (rather than a human) to you and your business? I think that provides you with a powerful way to explain to your CFO that unfortunately, whilst the digital reports and metrics would suggest that many people are visiting your site or clicking on your ads, when you actually look at the bottom line of your business you may find that those numbers don’t seem to project the same optimism with regards to conversions.

It’s a fact that if you want quality, fraud-free advertising you can’t pay bottom dollar for it. Simply put, if it feels too good to be true—it probably is. You get what you pay for. 

Therefore you do need to choose your partners wisely. Having said that, though, if someone is telling you its guaranteed fraud free—I would question how they are able to say that. Your partner’s job is to try and stay one step ahead of fraudsters. But to say 100 percent ‘fraud free' is saying that they have already thought of what’s not been thought of…and in my opinion that’s a big call to make.

I would suggest that you don’t blindly pay more for a promise, but instead work with a partner who is able to explain the risks, what they do to minimize those risks to you and someone who wears those risks with you. Work with them to understand the true value of the media you are running with them—on real numbers—and you will be able to determine what price you are willing to pay.

Esther Carlsen is managing director, Xaxis Australia and New Zealand