NAB warns on online metrics fraud

NAB chief marketing officer Andrew Knott is puting pressure on internet platforms to stamp out ad fraud.

NAB chief marketing officer Andrew Knott. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

National Australia Bank chief marketing officer Andrew Knott is ramping up pressure on the big internet platforms and industry bodies to stamp out online ad fraud, and introduce standardised viewability metrics.

Mr Knott is the first CMO at a major advertiser in Australia to speak out about the problem of brands spending money on significant chunks of ad inventory that people never see, and fake online traffic, in a sign of increased tension between advertisers and platforms such as Facebook and Google.

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Knott also confirmed NAB was among a group of Australian advertisers refunded by Facebook after it disclosed a mistake in the way it measures ads, the social network’s 10th error since October 2016.

“I want to ensure my advertising is being seen by real humans as part of our target audience in the right context,” said Mr Knott.

“That to me is the key issue, making sure that we have genuine viewability, and that there’s transparency around the ecosystem that delivers that advertising to that target audience and that my brand is protected through that process as well.”

Repeated scandals to hit Facebook have eroded trust so dramatically among executives in the advertising community that the secretive company recently agreed to provide more granular data to third-party measurement partners such as Integral Ad ­Science, and Moat.

The aim was to restore confidence. However, some media- buying agencies have reported viewability rates on Facebook video campaigns as low as 20 per cent, according to anonymous interviews with executives conducted by UK trade title Digiday. Some executives suspect the figure is even lower.

This is below overall rates. Global display viewability rates for display and video ads are tracking at 52 per cent and 59 per cent respectively on a year-to-date basis, according to US online ad verification firm DoubleVerify.

The issue of fake online traffic generated by so-called “bots” is becoming more sophisticated and difficult to stop. Brands shelled out an estimated $US7 billion last year on buying online ads that people do not see, according to US trade group the Association of National Advertisers.

Extremist content on sites such as Google’s YouTube and Facebook is another problem. That is when ads for household names are displayed alongside inappropriate or illegal content. In doing so, brands are unwittingly funding Islamic extremists, white supremacists and pornographers.

Mr Knott said that while NAB ads have not appeared alongside objectionable content, the issue was grabbing his attention.

“I don’t want my advertising to appear in an inappropriate context, and I would expect that our publishers are protecting our brand from an inappropriate association,” he said.

“The entire media ecosystem needs to continuously evolve. And by that I mean the advertisers need to think about where they’re investing. Agencies need to continue to push for the efficacy of that ad spend. But we also need the publishers to come to the table in terms of providing the controls and the transparency and the measurements that we need. The final piece of the puzzle is making sure that the industry bodies get lined up on agreed standards of viewability.”

Mr Knott said he was taking a tougher stance on problems in digital advertising to assure his shareholders that their money is well spent.

“As the CMO for a large listed company I need to make sure that we’re investing our marketing spend appropriately and we need to be part of the conversation,” he said. “Do I fundamentally believe that my voice alone will change anything on a global scale? Not really. But do I think this is a conversation that I should be having with all of our publishers and in particular the global publishers? Yes, certainly.”

Mr Knott, a former McDonald’s executive, called for more third-party auditing of data and ad metrics after a series of measurement mishaps at Facebook.

“We, like many advertisers, received a small rebate from Facebook ... it just reinforces the point that publishers shouldn’t be marking their own homework and that’s why we are pushing for third-party ad serving and verification. We’re starting to see progress but we still feel there’s a long way to go with certain digital media publishers.”

Mr Knott’s intervention comes after Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer for Procter & Gamble, the biggest advertiser in the world, complained about the complexities in the digital media supply chain, and confusing media agency contracts.

“I’m confident that we have our agency relationships clearly audited and measured,” Mr Knott said. “So any contractual relationship we have to review involves procurement risk and legal as well as marketing. And I feel we’ve got the right approach with Mindshare.”