SpotXchange, a digital video ad marketplace, on Wednesday announced a partnership with DoubleVerify to help combat ad fraud and boost the overall quality of video ad inventory available for trading.
Among the features SpotXchange is adding to its platform via DoubleVerify is the ability to block ads before they are served to bots.
“At the time an ad request is made to SpotXchange, we leverage DoubleVerify to let us know if it’s from a human or a bot,” explained Nick Frizzell, director of brand safety and inventory at SpotXchange. “If it’s a human, we allow our buyers to bid on that ad opportunity and display an ad. If it’s a bot, SpotXchange will block that ad opportunity from our buyers. As such, advertisers on SpotXchange’s platform will never see the opportunity to serve an ad to a bot.”
SpotXchange will also use DoubleVerify to better understand the URLs on which ads are served. Frizzell said that an impression can be exchanged several times before the ad is actually served if the transaction URL does not match the URL where the ad will be served. This process is called URL masking.
URL masking is a problem, Frizzell said, because “every time an impression switches hands [it] presents the chance of information being lost.” SpotXchange hopes publishers will use the more granular URL data from DoubleVerify to remove URL masking tactics from the market.
The partnership will not include viewability measurement, but Frizzell noted that “it’s something SpotXchange may leverage in the future.”
DoubleVerify is a Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited viewability vendor, which is of note because the MRC intends to lift its advisory against using viewability as a currency for digital video advertising on June 30.