• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 22, 2017

Google plans to automate the refund process to advertisers running on DoubleClick Bid Manager who lose budgets to ad fraud on its platform. The technology will scan more than 180 automated filters and detection algorithms to identify and prevent invalid traffic.

The policy applies to inventory bought through ad partners AppNexus, Index Exchange, OpenX, Teads, Telaria and DoubleClick Ad Exchange. The company say they will refund money for invalid traffic detected up to 30 days after monthly billing. 

Google says these commitments cover about 90% of the available inventory in DoubleClick Bid Manager. The platform will identify the supply partners that provide refunds for invalid traffic and give advertisers the option to buy only from those sources.

The features will increase transparency in the advertising supply chain and give advertisers a better understanding of the invalid traffic detected in their campaigns, wrote Payam Shodjai, director of product management, in a post.

"Supply partners will receive reporting on the sources and amounts of invalid traffic that our systems are post-serve filtering from their platforms," Shodjai wrote.

As part of the push to increase transparency and eliminate ad fraud, Google has been working with the Interactive Advertising Bureau to build ads.txt standard into ad buying in which sellers now will require certification.

While slow adoption will become the biggest obstacle, Google says that by October 31, 2017, DoubleClick Bid Manager will only buy a publisher’s inventory from sources identified as authorized sellers in its ads.txt file when a file is available. The file creates an authentication handshake meant to curtail the selling and buying of fraudulent inventory.