DeepSee.io - Publisher Intelligence

“There is a years-long history, documented by DeepSee, that certain sellers are in the business of monetizing copyright-infringing content. Any SSP that partners with these sellers is at best?lacking proper governance?and at worst willfully facilitating piracy.“ -Chris Kane, CEO & Founder Jounce Media New research drop today. We've identified an enormous and long-lived piracy laundering operation, and the sellers who bring this illicit inventory to market. Later in the week, we'll reveal data shared with us by readers and partners that will additionally help us collectively arrive at who enabled this scheme.

Thanks to our generous readers, we were furnished with supply chain data related to the Nakamas Web SL Piracy laundering scheme from two major DSPs. Data from one DSP allows us to identify the entities who most often made this inventory available for sale going back to 2021; data from the other describes the period immediately following the publishing of our research, and it was fascinating to see how the seller makeup shifted dramatically after our posting. Key takeaways: 1) Infolinks de-authorized the most prominent seller of this inventory, and recent supply chain data from the period following our research-drop makes it clear that this had an immediate effect! 2) Buyers often encountered this inventory via resellers, and sChains from the buy-side make it clear how sh*t inventory from Netpub and Bidgear makes it to high quality exchanges like Magnite, Microsoft Advertising, and OpenX (for example). The inventory would never meet the tagged exchanges' own guidelines for direct partnership, but it doesn’t matter when the resellers they authorize have much lower standards. AdaptMX is the relationship with Netpub worth losing Microsoft Advertising business over? Seedtag is the relationship with Bidgear worth losing Magnite business over? R2B2 Ad monetization partner is the relationship with Bidgear worth losing Magnite business over? Adagio is the relationship with Netpub worth losing OpenX business over? Criteo is it worth allowing Netpub to promote your relationship when they knowingly monetize fraudulent inventory?

Our CEO Rachmiel (Rocky) Moss shows off our spoofing & embedded site signals, and how they relate to a scheme that's live today. These are classes of publisher fraud that use real people to create invalid advertising events.

We’re excited to share how our partnership with DeepSee.io - Publisher Intelligence is helping pave the way for Freestar’s next chapter! ?? From ensuring top-tier inventory quality to enhancing transparency and audience development, Deepsee’s cutting-edge technology is already making a significant impact. At Freestar, we drive innovation and maintain the highest standards for our publishers, advertisers, and partners. This collaboration is just one of the ways we’re staying ahead in a constantly evolving digital ad ecosystem. Check out our latest article to see how partnerships like this are shaping the future of Freestar and the industry: https://lnkd.in/g6UcAWGd

Our readers are the best in the biz! In just a few days, the seller & advertiser makeup of these laundering fronts is RADICALLY different! 1) Infolinks de-listed the direct account linked to dozens of these sites ( https://lnkd.in/gcnaUd3i ) , and their players / ad units haven't been seen since! 2) Many fewer logos from fortune 500 companies appearing now, anecdotally speaking. 3) Lots of Netpub house ads :) Also, we've been receiving messages from you to our hello@deepsee[.]io email inbox containing data & hot tips, and I am happy to say we'll have an update to the post early next week once we compile those contributions! Next week I'll update you on who continues to authorize the key ad managers associated with this scheme as direct sellers. Cracking down on these authorizations is the best way to keep the crud out of the bidstream.

?? Exciting Updates from DeepSee.io: Winter Edition ?? The team has been hard at work wrapping up the year with some fantastic updates to our portal. Check out what’s new in our Winter Update: ? On Page Video Metrics Gain insights into in-stream and outstream placement types with compliance flags that align with IAB Ad Guidelines. ?? Ad Refresh Rate Metrics Understand refresh behaviors with detailed insights, including average refresh times, percentile metrics, and peak-to-mean ratios for a more comprehensive view of ad behavior on pages. ?? PDF Export Summaries Share professional, polished summaries directly from your lists. Simplify collaboration and streamline reporting with key metrics at your fingertips. ?? Risk Factors API Integrate MFA signals seamlessly into your workflow to identify and mitigate publisher risks with confidence. ?? Targeted Domain Data Collection Daily scanning ensures the freshest ads.txt data for domains in your lists, so you’re always up-to-date. ?? Improved Keyword Extraction Smarter, more relevant keywords to better understand domain content and audience appeal. ?? Looking Ahead Thank you for your support in 2024! We’re gearing up for an incredible 2025 with even more powerful tools to help you stay ahead in the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape. ?? Ready to see the difference? Let’s talk: [email protected] #AdTech #Innovation #WinterUpdate #DigitalAdvertising

Thanks Trishla Ostwal for taking the time to cover this issue. To elaborate a bit, what's currently the most pressing issue for our partners using PMAX are dead, or templated sites; we consider Template sites (capital "T" as it relates to our taxonomy, which I'll link in the comments) to be ones that are created without human insight / oversight, which largely have cookie-cutter design, and which lack unique content, expertise, or a real POV. Put another way, it's AI slop. These are MUCH easier to crank out than your typical MFA (arbitrage) site, and the only reason they manage to get PMAX ad spend is because the google supply network has woefully lax entry requirements. Why should sites like chipandgames[.]com (or it's clone chilinetgame[.]com), with no organic discoverability or unique content appear in the top rows of your delivery report? Why should dead sites like conversionrateoptimizationtraining[.]today or influencer-agency-42491[.]bond appear at all? Don't believe the lip service when you read "Google’s behavioral policies don’t allow ads to be served on low-quality or spammy content." Such content is the backbone of PMAX; a way to unload remnant inventory to those who won't review their delivery reports. Funny thing is, it actually can create great outcomes when a close eye is kept on the placement quality. Be sure you do so.

?? September Updates: What’s New at DeepSee.io? ?? The DeepSee.io team have been busy rolling out some awesome updates this month to make the experience on our platform even better. Here’s a quick look at what’s new: ?? API Release: Our new API is live! You can now access key metrics like Domain Overview, Templated Site Signals, and Ad Density Metrics. Need more streamlined data? Hit us up to learn more! ??? Better Templated Site Detection: We’ve added new tools to help flag low-quality, mass-produced sites, giving you sharper insights into publisher quality. ?? App Store Data Now Live: Looking for app insights? You can now access data for iOS and Android directly from our search bar. Perfect for analyzing publisher performance and market trends! ?? Platform Upgrades: Faster load times and smoother navigation mean you can focus on what matters—making smarter, data-driven ad decisions. ?? Coming Soon: Stay tuned for new features like Ad Refresh Rates, Mobile Ad Density Data, and more video tools! Ready to dive in? Reach out to our team for more information!

Exciting news for advertisers! Ad Age today covered Google's significant update that new Search and Performance Max advertisers will now be automatically opted out of parked domains starting in October. This shift comes after Adalytics report in November 2023, which highlighted that 58% of known Google Search Partner (GSP) sites were parked domains—many with questionable value. Here's the full quote from our founder Krzysztof Franaszek to Ad Age in response to this latest move: “Adalytics applauds Google for taking yet another important step to improve the quality and transparency of the media buying experience. After publishing our report in November 2023, which identified that 58% of known GSP sites were parked domains, we're pleased to see Google continue its commitment to addressing these concerns. In December 2023, Google allowed brands to opt out of GSP placements in PMax campaigns, followed by increased transparency into GSP site placements in March 2024. Now, by making parked domains opt-in rather than opt-out as of October 2024, Google has empowered advertisers with more control over their campaigns, ensuring more effective media placements. It matters little how these concerns were brought to Google’s attention—the important thing is that they are responding to advertiser issues raised by us and others. We applaud Google for using criticism to improve its products and for taking meaningful steps to enhance the advertising ecosystem for everyone involved.” This change gives advertisers more control over their media spend, ensuring better targeting and reducing exposure to low-quality placements.

As you may know, we work with many orgs across the supply chain to get a handle on "MFA" sites, and we've previously collaborated with other experts to provide a set of criteria used to flag such inventory. Here's a quick explainer detailing how we apply those criteria to differentiate between Ad Clutter, Template Sites, and Arbitrage. https://lnkd.in/gwrKCUav