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“Some brands are blocking your website.”
A publisher received this news in February from one of its supply-side platforms, but neither the publisher nor the SSP knew why.
After some digging, the block came from an adtech tool from DoubleVerify to help brands block made-for-advertising websites (MFA), a vogueish industry catch-all term for websites designed to attract ad revenue without providing content.
The problem with DV’s tool, and a similar solution from Integral Ad Science, both enhanced and released widely earlier this year, is that legitimate publishers might get caught in the crosshairs, five publishing sources told ADWEEK. Assessing the scale of the issue and the impact on revenue is difficult since publishers don’t know if they have been blocked.
“We’re not getting transparency as to why we’re getting on the list,” the publisher source said, declining to be named so that they could discuss sensitive industry relations. Over one month of conversations, the publisher’s SSP worked with DV to get the sites no longer classified as MFA. The publisher, which runs an ad network, still doesn’t know which criteria got the sites dinged in the first place.
DV said its MFA tool was designed based on feedback from several of the world’s top publishers. A spokesperson added that it can discuss with publishers directly the context of why they are classified a certain way.
“Publishers have embraced and supported our MFA solution, which, we believe, is the most nuanced MFA quality offering on the market today,” the DV spokesperson said. “We designed it to provide advertisers a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, unlike an MFA avoidance strategy relying solely on blunt inclusion lists.”
The publisher complaints are the latest in long-simmering tensions between publishers and ad verification firms, which have been accused of unfairly diverting ad revenue away from hard news with overly simplistic keyword blocking.
“It’s another metric that publishers are getting beaten over the head with,” a second publishing source said, referring to IAS’ Ad Clutter tool, released in March, which helps brands avoid publishers with a high ad-to-content ratio and high ad density.
