
Augustine Fou
Member since July 2008Contact Augustine- Independent Cybersecurity and Ad Fraud Researcher FouAnalytics
- https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/augustinefou
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/augustinefou/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/Augustinefou
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/acfou
- New York New York
- 10016 USA
Augustine Fou is an industry-recognized thought leader with over 25 years of management consulting and internet/digital strategy consulting experience, advising CMOs, marketing executives, and global brands. He has both client side (American Express) and agency side experience (McCann, Omnicom) and is an entrepreneur/small business owner. Dr. Fou is Founder and Chief Digital Strategist at Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc. Dr. Fou is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU and Rutgers University, where he teaches courses on digital strategy and social media marketing to executive MBA students. He started his career with McKinsey & Company and earned his PhD in Materials Science from MIT at age 23.
Articles by Augustine All articles by Augustine
- The Importance Of Context In Reporting Ad Fraud in
Real-Time Daily on
04/17/2017
Why is there rampant misunderstanding of ad fraud, even among participants in the digital ad-tech ecosystem? I think it's due to wildly differing numbers, conflicting reports, and lack of context in what people read about ad fraud.
- Low-Tech Or No-Tech Ways to Fight Ad Fraud in
Real-Time Daily on
04/12/2017
Advertisers might think they need advanced technology solutions to detect and fight ad fraud. And yes, there are certain circumstances when attacks are so pernicious that advanced technology is needed. However, there are low-tech and no-tech tactics that advertisers can use to uncover and stop ad fraud that is still very widespread.
- How Ad Fraud Messes Up Measurement in
MediaDailyNews on
09/28/2016
We have all heard of ad fraud. And we all probably also know that showing ads to bots -- non-human visitors -- is a waste of money. But what is less understood is how ad fraud can wreak havoc on analytics and measurement -- to the point that what you see in analytics is not what it seems.
- How Ad Fraud, Ad Blocking And Viewability Are Interrelated in
MediaDailyNews on
04/29/2016
Higher average viewability could be a good thing. But if it is measured in isolation of measuring for fraud and bots, then it could also be misleading.
- How Bots Take a Bite Out of Bottom Lines in
Real-Time Daily on
05/07/2015
By now, everyone is aware of the bot problem, also known as NHT (non-human traffic). Most also understand that bots can go to webpages to cause ad impressions to load and then click on the ads too. But probably fewer people are aware of the true extent to which bots are impacting the bottom lines of all the players involved in the digital advertising supply chain.
Comments by Augustine All comments by Augustine
- WPP Media 3.0
by
Joe Mandese
(Media 3.0 on
06/10/2025)
yep
- CTV Ad Buying: How Can You Be Sure You're Getting What You Think You're Getting?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
05/29/2025)
they need to measure with analytics, and not trust that legacy vendors caught the fraud (because they didn't_
- Yes, Ad Fraud Is Still Eating Your Budget
by
Maarten Albarda
(Media Insider on
05/30/2025)
yep. the legacy verification vendors are part of the problem because their tech kept telling advertisers the fraud was 1% for the last 10 yrs straight. time to upgrade to better analytics so you can "see Fou yourself"
- Wieser Is Right: CTV Is Tiny Fraction Of Ads Viewed On TV
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
05/22/2025)
Folks should read this and understand how much of the CTV ads they are buying now are not ads on CTV. Plain and simple. Thanks for writing up.
- Where Did The $25 Billion Of 2023 U.S. CTV Ad Spend Actually Go?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
04/04/2024)
agreed, Dave, the numbers don't add up; similar things have happened over the last 20 years with the rest of "digital ad spending"
- Programmatic Ad Spend Is Forecast At $157.35 Billion For This Year
by
Ray Schultz
(Publishers Daily on
01/31/2024)
fraudsters + middlemen
- TV Ad Price Deflation Projected To Be Sustained, And Not Just For The U.S.
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
09/28/2023)
Ed, right.
- Trustworthy Accountability Group Tackles MFA Sites
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
06/19/2023)
Note that TAG is not (and has not been) the solution. Deepsee has (and had) the soluton.
- ANA's Kroll Analysis: Advertisers Paying Twice For Some Programmatic Fees
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
08/03/2023)
advertisers paid for verification twice, sometimes three times over, and the verification tech doesn't even work for most forms of fraud; they are tuned for looking for invalid traffic/bots.see the whistleblower testimony slide in the article. Legacy Fraud Verification Vendors Are No Longer Fit for Purposehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/legacy-fraud-verification-vendors-longer-fit-purpose-fou/
- ANA's Kroll Analysis: Advertisers Paying Twice For Some Programmatic Fees
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
08/03/2023)
Kroll surveyed 33 people and "found"... "that in many instances advertisers are redundantly paying third-party services to verify their ads in programmatic advertising buys, even though the supply-side platforms (SSPs) typically already provide third-party ad verification as part of their exchange."

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