Man
Professional
- Messages
- 3,129
- Reaction score
- 688
- Points
- 113
There are no limits that scammers cannot cross to profit at the expense of advertisers. Just as there are good and bad bots, good and bad proxy traffic, there are also attackers who negatively affect advertising campaigns by sending “bad” traffic using iFrame. This is one of the most commonly used methods of embedding one web page into another, pixelating ads, or visually hiding ad blocks.
This article will cover what iFrame is, why it is important for marketers and advertisers to know and identify it, how it works, and what damage it can cause to your advertising budget.
Contents
1. What is iFrame traffic?
2. How does the iFrame click fraud technique work?
3. Types of iFrame fraud
3.1. Pop-unders
3.2. Pixelation
3.3. Placement outside the screen area
4. How does frame traffic fraud affect advertising campaigns?
5. Not iFrame alone
6. Time for change
7. What can be done to combat fraudulent iFrame traffic
However, when it comes to ways to deceive advertisers, this click fraud method can be classified as fraudulent. Real users may not suspect that they have viewed, for example, a hundred advertisements at once. And this is a serious problem for brands.
Often this technique is used to deceive not only the customer, but also the user, who can accidentally click anywhere on the page, and suddenly be redirected to a link on the advertiser's site, for example. That is, the user ends up on a page of a product or service in which he is not interested, and the advertiser pays for the non-targeted transition.
Frames can also be simply visually invisible or disguised as functional interface elements. For example, they can cover the purchase button. This is how fraudsters intercept user clicks and direct iFrame traffic to the advertiser's website. They do this using the following methods:
This fraud method is a threat primarily to advertising with payment for impressions (CPM model - Cost Per Mille). Imagine how many ads a fraudulent advertising partner can place on a conditional 10 pixels. And if they also go beyond the screen ...
Regardless of how and where fraudsters use frame technology, the end result in all cases is the depletion of advertisers' budgets, a decrease in conversion, and a violation of statistics for all metrics.
Although botnet click fraud is the leading advertising fraud, many cybercriminals also use low-paid manual labor from buxes and click farms to generate human rather than bot traffic. Fraudsters can also clone these people's cookies and transfer them to bots to generate further traffic or clicks.
It's time for a change, although of course iFrames are still necessary. However, they are not recommended for use in the digital advertising industry. In the past, when partners used APIs and plugins to display content, frames made sense. Now, HTML5 solves this problem.
The benefits of moving from iFrame to new formats are obvious. Domain fraud is constantly growing, which threatens not only advertisers' budgets, but also the reputation of both the brands themselves and donor sites.
This article will cover what iFrame is, why it is important for marketers and advertisers to know and identify it, how it works, and what damage it can cause to your advertising budget.
Contents
1. What is iFrame traffic?
2. How does the iFrame click fraud technique work?
3. Types of iFrame fraud
3.1. Pop-unders
3.2. Pixelation
3.3. Placement outside the screen area
4. How does frame traffic fraud affect advertising campaigns?
5. Not iFrame alone
6. Time for change
7. What can be done to combat fraudulent iFrame traffic
What is iFrame traffic
Frames are web elements that make it easy to insert external content from another site or other web pages into the current one. For example, social media widgets and YouTube videos are considered the most common insertions. Thus, iFrame traffic is traffic received from externally embedded content. The technology itself is not considered illegal, and the traffic is not considered “bad”.However, when it comes to ways to deceive advertisers, this click fraud method can be classified as fraudulent. Real users may not suspect that they have viewed, for example, a hundred advertisements at once. And this is a serious problem for brands.
How does iFrame click fraud work?
Traffic coming from iFrame is usually completely legitimate and is not a priori fraudulent. It all depends on the way the content is placed. For example, fraudsters can use frames to load entire pages in a window of 1×1 pixel height and width. Thus, the real user simply will not see the ad.Often this technique is used to deceive not only the customer, but also the user, who can accidentally click anywhere on the page, and suddenly be redirected to a link on the advertiser's site, for example. That is, the user ends up on a page of a product or service in which he is not interested, and the advertiser pays for the non-targeted transition.
Frames can also be simply visually invisible or disguised as functional interface elements. For example, they can cover the purchase button. This is how fraudsters intercept user clicks and direct iFrame traffic to the advertiser's website. They do this using the following methods:
- The advertisement is placed in a block of 0 pixels in height and the same in width.
- The ad unit is located off-screen (outside the visible part of the page).
- A collage of different parts of many ads.
- Overlapping a functional element on a website.
- Pop-up windows.
This fraud method is a threat primarily to advertising with payment for impressions (CPM model - Cost Per Mille). Imagine how many ads a fraudulent advertising partner can place on a conditional 10 pixels. And if they also go beyond the screen ...
Types of iFrame Fraud
Almost no advertiser is immune to traffic generated by fraudsters. Even if you place ads through large platforms Yandex.Direct and Google Adwords. The types of fraud related to iFrame technology are listed below.Pop-unders
PopUnder – a format for displaying ads in the form of a pop-up window or banner under some other interface element. As soon as the user enters the site, such a window appears automatically. As a rule, this method is detrimental to CPM advertising. However, some fraudsters can use redirect technology in PPC ads to deceive users who click on the “Close” button of the pop-under, but instead they are redirected to the advertiser’s landing page.Pixelation
As we have indicated above, this is a technology of placing an advertisement in one pixel (1×1). As you can imagine, an attacker can place a huge number of different advertisements in a small sidebar. It is advisable for the advertiser to regularly check the ad placement sites and update the blacklist.Placement off screen area
This method of deception has been used for quite a long time not only in digital advertising, but also by website owners who place rented links on them. In this way, webmasters receive money for placing/viewing advertisements and do not spoil the appearance of the website page.How Frame Traffic Fraud Affects Advertising Campaigns
If we talk about the purposes for which iFrame can be used and what threat it poses to advertisers, then we can highlight the following:- CPM advertising impression fraud;
- click fraud;
- lead scam;
- subscription fraud;
- attribution hijacking.
Regardless of how and where fraudsters use frame technology, the end result in all cases is the depletion of advertisers' budgets, a decrease in conversion, and a violation of statistics for all metrics.
Not iFrame alone
It is not always possible to detect cybercriminals on your own, since they use all their fraudulent methods in a complex. These may include using a VPN to mask geolocation, changing fictitious domains, covering up and replacing any digital traces (fingerprints).Although botnet click fraud is the leading advertising fraud, many cybercriminals also use low-paid manual labor from buxes and click farms to generate human rather than bot traffic. Fraudsters can also clone these people's cookies and transfer them to bots to generate further traffic or clicks.
Time for change
Surprisingly, iFrames are still alive and kicking. Major ad platforms still offer them as the default format for advertising. Some experts think this approach is just crazy. After all, there is an alternative to frames in the form of JavaScript. The industry needs to make a concerted effort to switch to this new format.It's time for a change, although of course iFrames are still necessary. However, they are not recommended for use in the digital advertising industry. In the past, when partners used APIs and plugins to display content, frames made sense. Now, HTML5 solves this problem.
The benefits of moving from iFrame to new formats are obvious. Domain fraud is constantly growing, which threatens not only advertisers' budgets, but also the reputation of both the brands themselves and donor sites.
