Advertisers are continuously pressured to maximize their ad spend. Yet, a significant amount of their advertising dollars go to Made-for-Advertising sites (MFAs) that don’t improve performance. So how come advertisers haven’t moved away from those sites? In this post, we cover why MFA sites are so prevalent and the damage they can cause to advertisers, to consumers and to the planet.
What are Made-for-Advertising sites?
Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites are websites whose business model is to buy cheap traffic and excessively monetize and display ads. Excessive ads aren’t the only characteristic of MFA sites. They can also contain excessive content, often in the form of clickbait or AI-generated content, tags, plugins, and more. Sometimes, there’s no content at all. However, MFA sites are not illegal. But they’re probably not ethical and exist within gray-area operations. So what’s the issue?
How do Made-for-Advertising sites waste ad dollars?
MFA sites can be harmful to consumers, brands and advertisers, and finally, to the environment. Let’s take a look at how.
MFA impact on consumers
MFA sites often have a bad user experience. To what degree varies between MFA sites, however, some common experiences are disappointing clickbait content or an annoyingly large number of ads in view at once.
MFA impact on brands and advertisers
Right off the bat, MFA sites eat up 15% of global programmatic ad spend, and 21% of advertisers’ impressions as estimated by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), without providing meaningful performance. One of the reasons why MFA sites are still so prevalent is that they often provide inflated vanity metrics but don’t improve bottom-funnel metrics. Advertisers can see an increase in impressions, views and viewability from MFA sites but no contributions to purchases or customer acquisition.
Additionally, MFA sites can hurt brands’ reputations. By seeing ads on MFA sites, consumers might associate a brand with low-quality content, in addition to the wasted ad spend.
MFA impact on the environment
MFA sites generate approximately 26% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites, according to Scope3. They do this by connecting to as many SSPs and resellers as possible and sending thousands of requests for every impression. Knowing that carbon emissions are generated by every request, and the amount of carbon waste is determined by the size of the data transfers, MFA sites are some of the worst polluters of the internet and the digital media and advertising industry.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
How can advertisers avoid MFA sites?
Up until now, there was little that advertisers could do to avoid MFA sites outside of manually finding and removing those sites from their DSPs. But that is a tedious, laborious process, taking up much of advertisers’ precious time.
Now, there is a better way. Sharethrough is the first SSP to automatically remove MFA sites, as identified by Jounce Media, from all over-the-shelf (OTS) and custom PMPs. Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’sClimate Shield technology, automatically exclude high-emissions/low-performing sites, which also include Jounce-identified MFA sites. All this at no extra cost, no extra lift and no negative impact on performance for advertisers.
This is the latest entry in Sharethrough’s Green Media Products, which also includes the first-of-its-kind GreenPMPs™, also powered by Scope3, which automatically measures and compensates for the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by digital ad campaigns by allocating a portion of the ad spend towards funding high-quality carbon removal initiatives.
What can MFA sites do to improve their status?
There are many ways that MFA sites can improve on different aspects, however, a handful of methods are the most effective. MFA sites should limit the number of ads displayed at once and in the background. They can start doing this by being more selective and limiting the number of exchanges they work with.
Additionally, for MFA sites to stop relying on bought traffic and clicks, they will need to improve the user experience of their sites and start creating original content. These methods will naturally reduce the carbon emissions generated by the now ex-MFA sites.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
Another Chance
This removal of MFA sites isn’t meant to act as a punishment, but rather as a signal to them to reduce their carbon emissions or miss out on ad spend. Once they improve their emissions, performance and user experience, the ex-MFA sites can rejoin the supply path and earn ad spend.
Not only this, the entire digital media and advertising industry benefits from their re-entry because the programmatic supply chain needs all the help it can get to become sustainable and reach net zero emissions by 2030. We can do more collectively than divided.
Contact us to get started with Low-Emissions PMPs or to learn more about what the removal of MFA sites means for you.
Advertisers are continuously pressured to maximize their ad spend. Yet, a significant amount of their advertising dollars go to Made-for-Advertising sites (MFAs) that don’t improve performance. So how come advertisers haven’t moved away from those sites? In this post, we cover why MFA sites are so prevalent and the damage they can cause to advertisers, to consumers and to the planet.
What are Made-for-Advertising sites?
Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites are websites whose business model is to buy cheap traffic and excessively monetize and display ads. Excessive ads aren’t the only characteristic of MFA sites. They can also contain excessive content, often in the form of clickbait or AI-generated content, tags, plugins, and more. Sometimes, there’s no content at all. However, MFA sites are not illegal. But they’re probably not ethical and exist within gray-area operations. So what’s the issue?
How do Made-for-Advertising sites waste ad dollars?
MFA sites can be harmful to consumers, brands and advertisers, and finally, to the environment. Let’s take a look at how.
MFA impact on consumers
MFA sites often have a bad user experience. To what degree varies between MFA sites, however, some common experiences are disappointing clickbait content or an annoyingly large number of ads in view at once.
MFA impact on brands and advertisers
Right off the bat, MFA sites eat up 15% of global programmatic ad spend, and 21% of advertisers’ impressions as estimated by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), without providing meaningful performance. One of the reasons why MFA sites are still so prevalent is that they often provide inflated vanity metrics but don’t improve bottom-funnel metrics. Advertisers can see an increase in impressions, views and viewability from MFA sites but no contributions to purchases or customer acquisition.
Additionally, MFA sites can hurt brands’ reputations. By seeing ads on MFA sites, consumers might associate a brand with low-quality content, in addition to the wasted ad spend.
MFA impact on the environment
MFA sites generate approximately 26% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites, according to Scope3. They do this by connecting to as many SSPs and resellers as possible and sending thousands of requests for every impression. Knowing that carbon emissions are generated by every request, and the amount of carbon waste is determined by the size of the data transfers, MFA sites are some of the worst polluters of the internet and the digital media and advertising industry.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
How can advertisers avoid MFA sites?
Up until now, there was little that advertisers could do to avoid MFA sites outside of manually finding and removing those sites from their DSPs. But that is a tedious, laborious process, taking up much of advertisers’ precious time.
Now, there is a better way. Sharethrough is the first SSP to automatically remove MFA sites, as identified by Jounce Media, from all over-the-shelf (OTS) and custom PMPs. Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’sClimate Shield technology, automatically exclude high-emissions/low-performing sites, which also include Jounce-identified MFA sites. All this at no extra cost, no extra lift and no negative impact on performance for advertisers.
This is the latest entry in Sharethrough’s Green Media Products, which also includes the first-of-its-kind GreenPMPs™, also powered by Scope3, which automatically measures and compensates for the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by digital ad campaigns by allocating a portion of the ad spend towards funding high-quality carbon removal initiatives.
What can MFA sites do to improve their status?
There are many ways that MFA sites can improve on different aspects, however, a handful of methods are the most effective. MFA sites should limit the number of ads displayed at once and in the background. They can start doing this by being more selective and limiting the number of exchanges they work with.
Additionally, for MFA sites to stop relying on bought traffic and clicks, they will need to improve the user experience of their sites and start creating original content. These methods will naturally reduce the carbon emissions generated by the now ex-MFA sites.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
Another Chance
This removal of MFA sites isn’t meant to act as a punishment, but rather as a signal to them to reduce their carbon emissions or miss out on ad spend. Once they improve their emissions, performance and user experience, the ex-MFA sites can rejoin the supply path and earn ad spend.
Not only this, the entire digital media and advertising industry benefits from their re-entry because the programmatic supply chain needs all the help it can get to become sustainable and reach net zero emissions by 2030. We can do more collectively than divided.
Contact us to get started with Low-Emissions PMPs or to learn more about what the removal of MFA sites means for you.
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
Advertisers are continuously pressured to maximize their ad spend. Yet, a significant amount of their advertising dollars go to Made-for-Advertising sites (MFAs) that don’t improve performance. So how come advertisers haven’t moved away from those sites? In this post, we cover why MFA sites are so prevalent and the damage they can cause to advertisers, to consumers and to the planet.
What are Made-for-Advertising sites?
Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites are websites whose business model is to buy cheap traffic and excessively monetize and display ads. Excessive ads aren’t the only characteristic of MFA sites. They can also contain excessive content, often in the form of clickbait or AI-generated content, tags, plugins, and more. Sometimes, there’s no content at all. However, MFA sites are not illegal. But they’re probably not ethical and exist within gray-area operations. So what’s the issue?
How do Made-for-Advertising sites waste ad dollars?
MFA sites can be harmful to consumers, brands and advertisers, and finally, to the environment. Let’s take a look at how.
MFA impact on consumers
MFA sites often have a bad user experience. To what degree varies between MFA sites, however, some common experiences are disappointing clickbait content or an annoyingly large number of ads in view at once.
MFA impact on brands and advertisers
Right off the bat, MFA sites eat up 15% of global programmatic ad spend, and 21% of advertisers’ impressions as estimated by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), without providing meaningful performance. One of the reasons why MFA sites are still so prevalent is that they often provide inflated vanity metrics but don’t improve bottom-funnel metrics. Advertisers can see an increase in impressions, views and viewability from MFA sites but no contributions to purchases or customer acquisition.
Additionally, MFA sites can hurt brands’ reputations. By seeing ads on MFA sites, consumers might associate a brand with low-quality content, in addition to the wasted ad spend.
MFA impact on the environment
MFA sites generate approximately 26% more carbon waste than non-MFA sites, according to Scope3. They do this by connecting to as many SSPs and resellers as possible and sending thousands of requests for every impression. Knowing that carbon emissions are generated by every request, and the amount of carbon waste is determined by the size of the data transfers, MFA sites are some of the worst polluters of the internet and the digital media and advertising industry.
Related: [Infographic] Understanding How The Programmatic Supply Chain Generates CO2 Emissions — Sharethrough
How can advertisers avoid MFA sites?
Up until now, there was little that advertisers could do to avoid MFA sites outside of manually finding and removing those sites from their DSPs. But that is a tedious, laborious process, taking up much of advertisers’ precious time.
Now, there is a better way. Sharethrough is the first SSP to automatically remove MFA sites, as identified by Jounce Media, from all over-the-shelf (OTS) and custom PMPs. Additionally, Sharethrough’s new, curated Low-Emissions PMPs, powered by Scope3’sClimate Shield technology, automatically exclude high-emissions/low-performing sites, which also include Jounce-identified MFA sites. All this at no extra cost, no extra lift and no negative impact on performance for advertisers.
This is the latest entry in Sharethrough’s Green Media Products, which also includes the first-of-its-kind GreenPMPs™, also powered by Scope3, which automatically measures and compensates for the exact amount of carbon emissions generated by digital ad campaigns by allocating a portion of the ad spend towards funding high-quality carbon removal initiatives.
What can MFA sites do to improve their status?
There are many ways that MFA sites can improve on different aspects, however, a handful of methods are the most effective. MFA sites should limit the number of ads displayed at once and in the background. They can start doing this by being more selective and limiting the number of exchanges they work with.
Additionally, for MFA sites to stop relying on bought traffic and clicks, they will need to improve the user experience of their sites and start creating original content. These methods will naturally reduce the carbon emissions generated by the now ex-MFA sites.
Related: 3 Ways Publishers Can Reduce Carbon Emissions Without Impacting Revenue — Sharethrough
Another Chance
This removal of MFA sites isn’t meant to act as a punishment, but rather as a signal to them to reduce their carbon emissions or miss out on ad spend. Once they improve their emissions, performance and user experience, the ex-MFA sites can rejoin the supply path and earn ad spend.
Not only this, the entire digital media and advertising industry benefits from their re-entry because the programmatic supply chain needs all the help it can get to become sustainable and reach net zero emissions by 2030. We can do more collectively than divided.
Contact us to get started with Low-Emissions PMPs or to learn more about what the removal of MFA sites means for you.
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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