Using Blockchain to Combat Ad Fraud and Ensure Marketing Transparency

With this measure, the digital marketing ecosystem is becoming more beleaguered, as an increasing number of fraudulent activities raise their ugly heads time and again, sapping the strength of integrity for advertising online and leading to humongous financial losses to stakeholders. The paper explores the potential for blockchain as a strong remedy against fraud in advertising and, in general, transparency in the digital marketing sector. A novel way of ensuring genuineness of ad impression and integrity of click-through rates by utilizing a decentralized and immutable ledger system. This paper undertakes, in a critical manner, the scalability, interoperability, and regulatory implications faced while adopting blockchain in the marketing industry. The findings suggest that, though the blockchain has a promising mitigation potential for ad fraud and transparency, its adoption is incumbent upon solving technical constraints and fostering collaboration across industries. The current research further supports academic discourse on the tendency to innovate in digital marketing and proposes practical insights for both marketers/advertisers and technology developers trying to leverage blockchain to pursue advertising practices that are both ethical and efficient.