The Menace Of Made-For-Advertising Sites: A Call For Transparency & Ethical Practices In Digital Advertising

Cam Dinnie (above), operations director at Kargo APAC, reflects on the growing scourge of made-for-advertising websites that suck funding away from deserving publications and waste client ad dollars.
There’s a new TLA (“three letter acronym”) that’s crept into a lot of media buying conversations lately — MFA. Have you ever clicked on an enticing headline, hoping to find valuable content, only to be bombarded with a barrage of ads and fake stories? This frustrating experience has become all too common, and it can be attributed to the increase in Made-for-Advertising (MFA) websites.
To understand the challenge posed by MFA websites, we need to define what constitutes MFA. MFA is a combination of paid traffic, clickbait traffic and other incentivised traffic that is engineered to create ad impressions, and ultimately generate revenue. New sites pop up virtually overnight with millions of impressions, sucking up ad dollars and hurting campaign performance.
MFA websites operate on a simple principle: arbitrage. They focus on generating traffic, often from search engines and social media platforms. Their goal is to attract traffic at a lower cost than they can make by selling ad space. They achieve this by creating filler content, crafting clickbait headlines, interlinking their network of websites, and producing multi-page articles, all aimed at increasing the number of display and video ads presented to users.
MFA Driving Performance
According to research by Ebiquity, MFA websites appear enticing due to their high viewability rates, reaching 77 per cent on average compared to the World Federation of Advertisers’ digital media benchmark of 63 per cent. These sites also offer a CPM 30 per cent to 40 per cent lower than non-MFA websites. In short, they perform “well “when viewed against basic campaign metrics.
However, despite high viewability, MFA websites deliver low-intent click-throughs, often resulting in wasted ad spend. The content and user experience on these sites are far below what advertisers would typically expect. Users are bombarded with ads, subjected to confusing navigation buttons, and exposed to deceptive tactics—all with the sole purpose of maximising ad impressions, not driving real campaign outcomes.
How Menacing are MFA SiteS?
Media analytics ad-tech firm Ebiquity, in partnership with programmatic research firms Jounce Media and DeepSee, found US$115 million (AU$178 million) in ad spend went toward spammy, made-for-advertising (MFA) sites — that’s 7.8 per cent of the programmatic budget globally and 9.8 per cent in the US. The sample was drawn from $1.47 billion (AU$2.29 billion) spent by 42 Ebiquity clients between January 2020 to March 2022.
MFA sites are capturing ad budgets at the expense of premium publishers. Ad dollars that would otherwise be spent across premium, professionally curated sites are directed towards MFA sites. So not only are ad budgets wasted but publishers, and ultimately, users suffer.
In recent efforts to thwart MFA activity, companies have been implementing new safeguards. The Media Rating Council (MRC) published the MRC IVT 2.0 Standards in June 2020. One of the tenets of the new standard was for DSPs to provide buyers with reporting information about whether publisher traffic is purchased or not.
DV360 is in the midst of updating its RTB spec to allow publishers to pass organic/non-organic flags in the bidstream. Once it hits critical mass and has “seen enough,” you bet it will be adjusting the way it bids.
Additionally, The Trade Desk started to push back on MFA publishers and over the past few months has already blocked multiple MFA sites and continues to block more and more daily. Jud Spencer of The Trade Desk, recently tweeted: “Publishers, your traffic sourcing practices permanently impact your reputation. If you are doing any form of ad-arbitrage or undisclosed rewarded traffic you are going to find it very difficult to transact on our platform.”
Looking for Signs of MFA
The Trade Desk is starting the conversation, but brands need to do their part and think about their holistic approach to inventory across all of their partners. Brands can and should become aware of the signs of MFA sites and play a more active role by creating media buying requirements that minimise exposure. Obviously, any site that is suddenly a top-volume site that no one has ever heard of is suspect. Real publisher sites build up their user base over months, years, and even decades. Sure, a huge story, a great social media campaign, or the launch of a hit show can spike traffic on a site. But it’s important to investigate. More often than not, a no-name site that’s consistently drawing millions of views without any good reason is suspicious.
Understanding how pageviews are generated by publishers can be critical in helping buyers track for MFA and better prioritise their media buys. Buyers can do their due diligence by evaluating publishers’ inorganic traffic through a simple domain report. While inorganic traffic can be valuable, understanding the percentage of a publisher’s traffic that is inorganic is a good idea. A very high percentage of inorganic or paid traffic can point to trouble.
Buyers can look at a site’s UTM parameters (the little pieces of data that publishers add to their URLs to see where different traffic comes from) that publishers use to track ROI on their paid traffic efforts. Through this UTM string, publishers commonly pass the source (more often than not, a recommendation vendor or social network) as well as the campaign ID that will match back up to revenue on the back end.
In one instance, when we looked at this website’s UTM parameters, we saw that almost 99 per cent of the site’s traffic was from paid (i.e. inorganic) sources — a clear signal the site is pushing performance campaigns to generate views.
Measuring the Right Metrics
To be fair, many large, high-quality publishers generate traffic using tactics that aren’t completely different from MFA sites. The difference is that they have built-in social audiences who are engaged with the brand and don’t need to spend large sums of money just to drive traffic to a subpar article. They also have great content and a goal of engaging users once they get on the page. Most MFA sites don’t have the same standards. The majority of MFA visitors don’t actually hang around, and MFA sites tend to have huge drop-off in traffic after the first-page load. Brands can use attention metrics and other deeper insights to make sure their dollars go to good traffic. While impressions and viewability won’t necessarily pick up on MFA traffic, any metrics that measure activity past the first second or two should do the trick.
Brands can set an attention requirement for more than two seconds, look at click and conversion data, and even test a site by bidding for impressions on the second-page load, so that they aren’t the first ad someone sees on the site. If there are very few second-page loads, chances are that the site isn’t creating a lot of value for visitors.
Be selective about who you partner with and where you buy inventory. A number of SSPs, like Kargo, have excelled in addressing MFA websites, emphasising a premium approach over scale. In recent Jounce Media research, Kargo stood out as the sole major SSP with 100 per cent premium inventory, certified as MFA-free. This certification assures advertisers of a brand-safe environment, enhancing ROI and precision. While this approach may not fit all SSPs, it showcases a quality-first model that benefits advertisers and publishers.
Putting In the Work
There are many ways to attack this epidemic for buyers, publishers and broader supply chain of SSPs and DSPs. Once a buyer has a hit list of the sites they want to investigate further, it’s time to ask the publisher the hard questions:
- What are the traffic sources?
- Can they provide GA screenshots to prove where the traffic originates from?
- Where do they land on the Jounce RTB Supply Path Benchmarking Report?
Brands want their ads to be adjacent to quality content, and they want their audiences to be engaged when they spend money on an ad impression. Right now, MFA is getting in the way of those goals. A more proactive stance against MFA will ensure that more partners prioritise organic traffic and minimise the amount of media budget wasted there.
As a publisher, be selective about the partners you work with. Make sure your inventory and hard-earned audiences are not positioned within the same exchange environment as these MFA sites. Ask your SSP partners about their inventory quality policies and approach, including, do they support and enable these MFA sites? Do their policies and procedures reflect the type of environment you would want your inventory circulated then make a deliberate decision on who you partner with.
Latest News

Why Advertisers Cannot Overlook The Benefits Of Generative AI
Are you a little late to the generative AI party? Well, pull your popper & toot your whistle to this essential read.

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024
Marc Collister (pictured) of P2 Content Creators spills the beans on his 2024 predictions drawing from two decades of experience in the advertising, film and television industry. I’m certain it will come as no surprise that in 2024, we can expect our industry to move at breakneck speed again. With even more rapid shifts in […]

Reddit Recap Reveals That Aussies Went Nuts For The Tillies, Eurovision And, Erm, Finance
Reddit’s annual Recap report has revealed the issues and moments that captured Australia’s collective mind over 2023 with, naturally, the Matildas featuring high on the list. The inaugural Australia-hosted Women’s World Cup saw Aussies glued to the footy (or, indeed soccer) with one enterprising user capturing the moment that Cortnee Vine scored the winner against […]

Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader
Zeno Australia has announced expanded creative design capabilities and the appointment of Jim Michell (lead image) to its senior leadership team. The new moves support strong growth in the region. Zeno Australia’s clients, including Abano Healthcare, Motorola and Yorkshire Tea, can now tap into a suite of creative design services to augment the agency’s work […]

Spikes Asia Announces Its 2024 Jury Line-Up
Spikes Asia, APAC’s most prestigious and sought-after Award for creativity and marketing effectiveness, has revealed its 2024 Jury line-up today. The 93 industry experts from across 18 markets represent APAC’s leading talent from a diverse range of disciplines. 2024 sees the highest representation from brands, including Budweiser, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and, for the first […]

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC
Assembled Media, is drawing upon the creative power of TikTok Creator Marketplace to help generate unique, impactful content for iconic stationery brand, BIC. The social activation campaign titled ‘A Pen for Every Side of You’ promotes the flexibility of BIC’s 4 Colours pen and is active nationwide on the BIC Stationery TikTok account. The campaign […]

Wednesday TV Ratings: Aussies Sign Up For Taronga Zoo
With animals proving a ratings winner for the networks yet again, we're expecting odd marsupial cooking mash-ups soon.

If You Can’t Beat The System, Cheat The System: Hardhat Launches ‘Cheat Codes For Challenger Brands’.
Independent creative and CX agency Hardhat has launched an Australian-first suite of growth accelerators; ‘Cheat Codes for Challenger Brands’.

Melinda Petrunoff: Pinterest Predicts Is A “Cheat Sheet” For 2024
Pinterest reckons jellyfish & moody cowboys will be big in 2024. Refused to be drawn on the return of shoulder pads.

IAB Launches Fourth Module In Its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series
IAB Australia has launched ‘Evolution in Market Mix Modelling’, the fourth module in its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series, which has been developed by IAB Australia’s Ad Effectiveness Council. The module explores what is driving the increased use of MMM and how the technique is evolving with advances in computing power and machine learning to provide […]

Scope3 Expands Carbon Measurement Capabilities To Include DOOH Advertising
Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform leading the decarbonisation of media and advertising, announced the addition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) to its emissions measurement. With DOOH ad spending predicted to grow from $17B in 2023 to nearly $24B by 2028, measuring this channel brings us one step closer to understanding the total impact of digital advertising […]

VOZ Enters Final Phase Of Total TV Viewing
This headline can be made so much more appealing by reading it with a Darth Vader-like inflection.

Selfies! Swipes! Scrolling! It’s The Best Of The Best Social Media Directors, Presented By Finecast, Part Of GroupM Nexus
Social media's far more than faffing about with videos of the office dog, as these digital maestros attest.

Thinkerbell Unveils Pringles “Shoot From The Chip” After Winning Competitive Pitch
Other than heroin, nicotine and Sex In The City re-runs, is there anything more addictive than the Pringle chip?

Now Open For Registration – NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific
NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, is now open for online registrations for the main conference. Jointly organized by the National Retail Federation and Comexposium, Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific will take place from 11 – 13 June, 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore and is expected to draw thousands […]

“He Cannot Die Without People Knowing What He’s Done”: Alan Jones Accused Of Indecently Assaulting Young Men
As sad as it is to say about these unsavoury allegations, why does it not come as any real surprise?

B&T TV – Jasmin Bedir On Why Trade Media Needs To “Drop The Shade”
Much like the arrival of tequila shots, you know you're in for a rollicking good time when Jasmin Bedir gets involved.

Kmart Does Christmas Via Dentsu Creative
Kmart is always B&T's one-stop shop at Christmas. Particularly for people we don't overly like.

Wavemaker Promotes James Boardman To Chief Strategy Officer
James Boardman amps up his Dungeons & Dragons creds as he's named Wavemaker's chief strategy officer.

When It Doesn’t Feel So Good Being Bad – It’s 2023’s Top Banned Ads
Other than a Cannes Lion, there's arguably no greater honour in advertising than getting your ad banned by a watchdog.

Taylor Swift Named Time’s Person Of The Year, Beating Out Putin, King Charles & Barbie!
Did you spend 172 hours staring at your computer screen & still didn't get Taylor Swift tickets? Stare some more here.

Petbarn & Greencross Vets Create Live Parasite Tracking Tool Via Howatson+Company
Could your incessant itch & dark urine actually be a sign of parasite infestation? Mark this as a must read.

Imogen Hewitt Promoted To Publicis’ Chief Media Officer ANZ
Imogen Hewitt's ascendancy at Publicis continues apace. Not that she's to be known as Dame Imogen Hewitt.

Icon Agency Nabs Michael Knox From Think HQ
We're still three weeks off the 31st, but already it's a "new year, new me" for Michael Knox as he joins Icon Agency.

James Warburton Resigns From Seven
James Warburton calls time on his Seven career. Also refusing all calls from Rugby Australia.

DBC2 Appoints Jason Fisher To Newly Created Role Of CEO
Following a period of significant client growth, leading auto marketing agency, DBC2 has appointed Jason Fisher (lead image) to the newly created role of CEO. The appointment is part of DBC2’s long term growth strategy ahead of the agency announcing a brand refresh and expanded proposition in early-2024. As a new shareholder of the business, […]

ACCC To Crackdown On Influencers & Businesses For Misleading Advertising & Dodgy Reviews
ACCC announces crackdown on dodgy influencers and online reviews. Which, it must be said, is their job.

Alastair Baker Promoted To Havas’ National Head Of Planning
Havas' Alastair Baker has a spring in his step and a song in his heart today following work promotion.

Three New Hires At Amplify
Extra pressure on Amplify's Nescafé Blend 43 catering tin today with the arrival of three new recruits.

Troye Sivan Named GQ’s Man Of The Year
Shannon Noll once again savagely cruelled by the GQ judges as KFC work goes unrecognised at Man Of The Year awards.

Indy Clinton, The Matildas & Fitzroy Garage Party Honoured At 2023 TikTok Awards
B&T a lucky attendee at last night's TikTok Awards. Disappointed not to see any cats playing piano, however.

Digital Advertising Excellence: A Blueprint For Maximum Engagement & Sustainability
Much like the importance of daily flossing, this is a gentle reminder of the damage crap creative can do.

What Are You Waiting For?! Enter TikTok Young Lions Now!
We're certainly not young, talented and trendy but you likely are, so enter the TikTok Young Lions comp!

Boomtown’s Final Masterclass Of 2023 Attended By Almost 100 Media Reps
Don’t treat regional media as a charity, but a real growth opportunity: That’s the message from Boomtown’s final masterclass of 2023, attended by almost 100 media industry representatives from across the nation. The masterclass was part of a series of educational sessions, delivered by Boomtown, the media collective championing advertising in regional Australia. The sessions […]

Mister Cartoon & Turtle Wax Partnership Launches In Australia & New Zealand Via DIJGTAL
DIJGTAL launches ‘The Art of Car Care’, an exciting partnership between renowned LA street artist and icon, Mister Cartoon and Turtle Wax in Australia and New Zealand.

GTA VI Trailer Smashes YouTube Viewership Records
This trailer marks great news for spotty teenagers and socially awkward people around the world.