Ad Fraud Just Got a Wake-Up Call: Engage Media TV Cleans House with Anura
In the high-stakes world of CTV and OTT advertising, trust is currency—and nothing erodes that faster than invalid traffic (IVT). Engage Media TV, a rising player in the programmatic ad space, just took a bold step toward restoring that trust by eliminating 11% of hidden IVT in less than 30 days. Their not-so-secret weapon? Anura, a real-time ad fraud detection platform built for transparency and speed.
The move comes at a critical time for the industry. With bot farms and spoofed apps wreaking havoc on campaign metrics and optimization models, many ad networks are struggling to assure advertisers that their dollars aren’t being siphoned into digital black holes. For Engage Media, that challenge was beginning to undermine both revenue and reputation.
From Bot Farms to Clean Feeds
Engage Media’s core problem wasn’t just IVT—it was the lack of actionable visibility. Fraudulent traffic from data centers and masked IPs slipped past traditional filters, skewing campaign data and wasting spend. Optimization became guesswork. Confidence eroded.
Anura flipped the script. Its solution provided real-time insights into every bid, impression, and traffic source across Engage Media’s programmatic stack—flagging anomalies before they could impact campaign delivery.
Within a month, Engage Media identified two problematic partners responsible for the majority of IVT. Removing them resulted in an 11% drop in invalid traffic and a measurable spike in advertiser satisfaction.
Picking Winners in the Anti-Fraud Arms Race
Engage Media isn’t new to fraud detection. The team has cycled through tools from Pixalate and HUMAN—but neither offered the balance of accuracy, cost-efficiency, and speed needed at scale.
“Some platforms were overpriced. Others were just noisy,” said Shahar Kadayer, CMO at Engage Media TV. “Anura gave us verified, real-time detection at a price that didn’t slow growth. It’s the most scalable solution we’ve worked with.”
The difference? Anura doesn’t just identify IVT—it contextualizes it. The platform maps fraud signals to real traffic behavior, giving users the intelligence to act immediately and decisively.
CTV’s Growing Fraud Problem—And Why It Matters
CTV and OTT are among the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising—but they’re also prime targets for fraudsters. The rise of server-side ad insertion (SSAI), spoofed device IDs, and impression laundering has created a murky landscape where even sophisticated platforms can struggle to verify what’s real.
Engage Media’s swift purge is a case study in what’s possible when platforms commit to transparency and invest in real-time intelligence. By proactively cleaning up its traffic, Engage Media not only protected its inventory but also sent a clear message to advertisers: performance and integrity aren’t mutually exclusive.
Scaling Safely in a Risky Ecosystem
Armed with Anura, Engage Media is now focused on scaling up without the shadow of IVT undermining its growth. The company has already seen improvements in campaign optimization and partner satisfaction—proof that fraud prevention isn’t just about cutting losses, but about unlocking new value.
In a landscape where fraud is often treated as an unavoidable cost of doing business, Engage Media’s approach stands out. It’s a reminder that tech alone doesn’t fix problems—smart implementation and decisive action do.
