Over the past few years, digital marketing has been transformed by new technology and the flood of data that make it easier and more efficient to identify, reach, and convert potential customers and stakeholders. Auto dealers today can find, with relative ease, those shoppers who might be most interested in both your new and used car inventory. These tools make it possible, with the right people in place, to open up your market and gain a competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, as with so many other advances, this progress has attracted some bad actors. These individuals have sought to take advantage of car dealers and have created some issues we all need to avoid. One of the most prominent issues of late has been the fraud associated with display advertising buying and performance reporting.

Previously believed to cost advertisers $7.2 billion globally each year, the actual cost of advertising fraud was predicted to reach $16.4 billion in 2017, according to the Association of National Advertisers. To put this in context, nearly 20 percent of total digital ad spend is wasted on fraudulent advertising placements. This is probably one of the main reasons that 50 percent of US digital marketers surveyed put ad fraud and brand safety as their top concern.

The problem is complex, ranging from how much ads are actually seen by anybody and the definition of ad measurement, to “hidden” rebates, where media agencies don’t disclose or return savings to their dealership clients. What makes this problem even more of a challenge is that the fraud is perpetrated using the tool upon which dealers rely most – Data.

Car dealers have to be on the look-out for dishonest practices that inflate impressions and artificially boost performance data. There currently exists a tangle of scenarios that gave unique opportunities for dishonest brokers to misrepresent the impact they’re delivering and take advantage of a dealerships marketing budget.

The first place we can start is to demand transparency in our digital marketing spend. A truly transparent marketplace, one in which there is no place to hide, should by its nature be trustworthy. However, the dealership marketing team has to be smarter. To eliminate fraud, dealership leaders should be asking tough questions and setting guidelines about.

• How does the dealership buy media?
• From whom does the dealership buy media?
• How are the best customers selected and targeted?
• How will the dealership engage media outlets and publishers?
• What metrics will be used to buy and judge success?
• Which intermediaries (if any) will the team work with?

Dealer principals and the marketing team need to make sure any potential blind spots that may invite fraud are well understood

One important first step is making sure that the dealership has confidence in the tools the team is using for any digital marketing investment. Late last year, DoubleClick announced they’ll be taking a big first step in the coordinated effort to remove fraud from the marketplace. Google, Facebook, and other major publishers have followed suit to help combat inflated impressions and performance generated by bad actors. This is great news: There is no excuse for accepting fraudulent, machine-generated impressions that have done nothing to help us achieve our sales goals.

Second, dealerships must insist that any discounts or rebates offered by publishers be disclosed and credited back to their budget. In an effort to achieve these rebates, and sometimes line their own pockets, less reputable players may recommend or implement media that is off-strategy. Often, the dealership has no clue and the amount of money can be significant. According to ANA, media suppliers paid rebates to third parties, or entities affiliated with those third parties, in amounts ranging from 1.67 percent to approximately 20 percent of aggregate media spending. If not returned to the dealer’s marketing investment, this money can distort recommendations and warp the overall marketing plan. Pay attention, too, to non-monetary incentives like tickets to high profile events, dinners, and travel. Auto dealerships need to be on the lookout for anything that may bring undue influence on advertising recommendations.

Finally, it has been a tough year for brand safety. Whether it’s on YouTube or Facebook, within a mobile app, or even alongside a piece of news content, dealerships must take steps to protect against having ads appearing next to objectionable content on digital media. New technologies are being developed to help protect your good name from showing up in inappropriate places, but they may not be a practical solution for most. A more conservative approach to digital might be to prioritize an approach that creates something like whitelists and blacklists, as well as working with premium publishers, to ensure brand safety.

At the end of the day, my firm belief is that there are far more honest brokers looking to help car dealers attain their goals. The entire advertising community, publishers, agencies and advertisers, are working hard to root out dishonest brokers. They are interested in discovering solutions that work and learning from strategies that didn’t. It’s only with these honest insights that dealerships will find truly effective marketing campaigns and a competitive advantage in the marketplace.