Real-time bidding (RTB) through programmatic ad exchanges has revolutionised the digital advertising industry.

Juniper Research estimates RTB networks will generate $42 billion annually in advertising spend in 2021, up from $3.5 billion in 2016. However, the instantaneous nature of programmatic exchanges combined with a lack of natively-integrated tools to dynamically verify publisher quality has led to exchanges brokering branded advertising on high risk publishers that host adult, hate speech, or IP infringing content.

White Bullet's quarterly reports show ad exchanges are consistently found in the intermediary supply chain of ads served to pirate websites, indicating high risk websites are taking advantage of ad exchanges to gain funding.

Fearing the damage to the brand's reputation that may be caused by ad misplacement, many big brands have rethought their programmatic operations. Some brands, such as P&G , have cut their ad spend by hundreds of millions of dollars and limited their digital marketing reach due to brand safety concerns.

Others – nearly two-thirds of all advertisers using programmatic exchanges - have fully or partially moved programmatic buying in-house in an attempt to ensure their branded advertising is never served to high risk publishers.

Bringing programmatic buying in-house indicates the increasing importance advertisers are placing on brand safety, including anti-piracy verification, and widespread recognition of the lack of transparency provided in the digital advertising ecosystem.

With real-time buying comes the need for real-time verification of publishers. If ad exchanges do not have accurate and dynamic risk assessments about the publishers where to which they serve ads, advertisers and brand equity will suffer.

Dynamic risk scoring is imperative when it comes to ensuring brands are not funding criminals. Websites must be regularly reviewed to test and retest the quality of their content and site experience outside of the ad exchange ecosystem.

Further, as many IP infringing websites are constantly changing their domain names to avoid detection , advertisers and ad exchanges cannot simply rely on static block-lists to ensure brand safety.

Smart technology that can accurately and instantly analyse the brand safety risk a publisher poses to an advertiser must be embraced by exchanges and directly integrated into their RTB technologies. At a minimum, ad exchanges should filter the lowest quality sites prior to sending bid requests to the exchange’s demand-side platform participants. Ad exchanges should also support third-party data integrations that enhance bid requests with additional dynamic sites scores for piracy risk.

White Bullet's IPI Index and data service is the real-time solution needed. The IPI Index uses machine learning and dynamic scoring to independently evaluate the brand safety risk a publisher poses to a brand in milliseconds. White Bullet's data-as-service solution can be integrated into existing RTB systems and can also be utilised by brands who are conducting in-house brand safety verification checks.

If ad exchanges can get on top of ad misplacement by directly integrating AI-driven regulatory compliance technology, they will provide the transparency and safety needed to win back the trust of advertisers.