TAG Initiative Unites Ad Leaders To Battle Digital Ad Fraud

The Trustworthy Accountability Group announced an industrywide anti-fraud program, Verified by TAG, to “fight digital ad fraud and bring new transparency across the digital ad ecosystem,” a TAG news release said Thursday. Companies can apply to be verified by TAG as a trusted advertising party, it said. Registered companies will receive a TAG-issued identifier they can share with partners and pass with every ad they buy, process, place or run, it said. TAG is also developing a Payment ID system to create a record of who gets paid for every impression, to prevent criminals from receiving ad spend, it said. “The TAG Registry and upcoming Payment ID system will act like a ‘two-factor authentication’ for the digital ad supply chain,” said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. “Through the TAG Registry, buyers will be able to ensure that they are working with trusted parties at every step of their campaigns, while the Payment ID system will ensure that payments only go to legitimate players, choking off the cash to criminals.” Registration is open, and "it’s time for every company in digital advertising to get TAG’ed,” Zaneis said. TAG’s registration program has been endorsed by the “big five” ad agency holding companies, plus AOL, Google and other major programmatic ad players, the release said.