Why Fraud Prevention Matters in Mobile App Marketing: Protecting Your Budget with the Right MMP

In today’s world, mobile apps are seemingly ubiquitous. Whether you are playing a game, ordering food, or trying to learn something new, you are likely using an app. The businesses behind the apps spend big bucks to encourage people to download and use them. However, many companies have a big problem—fraud. That is why an MMP mobile measurement partner is very important.

Let’s break it down, and see how fraud happens with mobile marketing, and how the right MMP for mobile apps can benefit your marketing budget.

What Is an MMP (Mobile Measurement Partner)?

A mobile measurement partner (MMP) is a tool that allows businesses to see what is happening with their mobile ads. Let’s say you see an ad for a fun app and you download that app. MMP will allow the app company to see where that download came from; was it from an Instagram ad, a YouTube ad, or a game ad?

Tracking the source of downloads is very necessary and vital for businesses as they only want to spend money on ads that actually work. With MMPs, businesses can find the things that people find useful and drop the ones that don't work for their audience.

The Problem: Mobile Ad Fraud

Here’s where things go awry.

There are several different types of mobile ad fraud. Some commonly talked about mobile ad frauds include:

• Click fraud: Clicking ads in a fake manner not coming from users.
• Install fraud: Fake app installs through bots or devices: Just to take their marketing dollars!
• Attribution fraud: Taking credit for a download that wasn’t sourced by them.

But these tricks make it look like you’re achieving results from the ads when you are not! Businesses are stuck picking up bills for fake results so they are wasting their budget!

Without a trustworthy mobile app tracking partner, it is impossible to know what’s real and what’s fake.

How MMPs Help Prevent Fraud

MMP, or mobile measurement partner, solves the most important job, which is measuring the performance of app marketing campaigns. Good MMPs include solid fraud prevention capabilities. Here's how they do it: 

• Identify Fake Installs: If the app receives hundreds of installs from a bot, a sophisticated MMP can detect it.
• Block Bad Traffic: Good traffic sources often result in installs, but there are ad sources that will show ads to users that will never download and continue use. An MMP can easily block those sources.
• Identify Ridiculous Behavior: If there are a sudden influx of installs from one specific location and/or type of device, the MMP will alert the business.

Protecting the business from wasted money and helping to identify real users that will enjoy the app is an absolute must.

Saving Your Marketing Budget

MMP, or mobile measurement partner, solves the most important job, which is measuring the performance of app marketing campaigns. Good MMPs include solid fraud prevention capabilities. Here's how they do it: 

• Identify Fake Installs: If the app receives hundreds of installs from a bot, a sophisticated MMP can detect it.
• Block Bad Traffic: Good traffic sources often result in installs, but there are ad sources that will show ads to users that will never download and continue to use. An MMP can easily block those sources.
• Identify Ridiculous Behavior: If there is a sudden influx of installs from one specific location and/or type of device, the MMP will alert the business.

Protecting the business from wasted money and helping to identify real users who will enjoy the app is an absolute must.

Final Thoughts

Marketing is an essential aspect to consider when entering the increasingly growing mobile application world. But you must keep in mind that fraud will take a toll on your marketing spend before you acquire meaningful users. This makes fraud detection and prevention that much more important.

By using a reputable MMP mobile measurement partner, it keeps your app marketing safe and sound. These partners identify fake activity, prevent fraudulent events and show you what is actually working.

If you advertise apps or plan to, make sure you are not flying blind. Use the right MMP for mobile apps, leverage the powerful tools that app measurement partners provide you, and partner with reputable mobile application tracking partners. Your budget, and more importantly your business, will appreciate it.