Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Scratch is hosted by Jenna Cummings, and she’s joined by Dr. Augustine Fou. 

In today’s special episode of Scratch, Jenna is joined by Dr.Augustine Fou, a leading expert in the area of digital ad fraud. Dr. Fou has been on the front lines of digital marketing for nearly 3 decades assisting government, regulatory bodies, and corporations in how to prevent and detect the nexus of cybercrime and ad fraud. 

 He joins us to discuss the latest in the Google ad fraud case which was brought to light by the team at Adlytics, who uncovered that Google has been running most of the ads you pay for as an advertiser (50-90%) on a network of third-party websites and mobile apps called "Google Video Partners" (GVP), where it’s virtually impossible to skip the ad. This means that as an advertiser, you’re paying for views that are not real. Jenna and Dr.Fou explore the implications for marketers, how you can start to build your own checks and balances, and how to not become addicted to phantom volumes when you run ads. This is a must-listen for digital marketers everywhere! 

Smart link: https://link.chtbl.com/scratch

📕Chapters: 

00:00 Intro

03:14 Dr.Fou’s Favourite Challenger Brand 

06:00 Google’s Ad Fraud - The Overview 

13:00 Double Verify have been grading their own homework, and it isn’t good 

20:20 Google will do the right thing when shown the right data

23:41 What alternatives do we have to verify the ad numbers? 

28:45 If you’re not willing to do the work, you don’t deserve to be a digital marketer

32:50 Spend less. You should be buying less and testing more 

40:04 You can’t reduce carbon emissions in your ad buys by outsourcing this to other vendors 

Mentioned in the show:

• Fou Analytics' fraud verification
• Search Discovery - Atlanta
• Camelot - Strategic Marketing in Dallas
• Adalytics' report on Youtube Ad Fraud
• Craig Silverman reports 

Find Rival online at www.wearerival.com, LinkedIn, Twitter. 

Watch the video version of this Podcast on YouTube.

Find Jenna on LinkedIn  

Find Dr Fou on Linkedin

Say hi at [email protected], we’d love to hear from you.

Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy that develops strategies and capabilities that help businesses grow faster. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing from successful CMOs, we compiled a list of the top 5 CMO podcasts to listen to in 2024; check it out here 🔗  https://www.wearerival.com/content-hub-articles/cmo-podcasts-you-cannot-afford-to-miss-in-2024