Afleveringen
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Ad fraud isnât a niche problem, itâs the business model.
In this episode of The Skeptical Marketer, host Jake Surrey sits down with Dr. Augustine Fou, one of the original investigators of digital ad fraud and the founder of Fou Analytics, to unpack just how deep and normalized the problem has become. From fake websites and cloned mobile apps to legacy fraud verification firms that look the other way, Dr. Fou explains why the digital ad ecosystem remains a playground for organized crimeâand why marketers canât rely on regulation or the platforms to save them. Drawing on 15 years of research and real-world auditing experience, he reveals how advertisers can finally take back control of their ad dollars and demand accountability.
The scale of the problem: Fou estimates that up to 90% of programmatic ad impressions are fakeâdriven by bots, fake websites, and cloned mobile apps. The illusion of safety: Legacy fraud verification firms report only ~1% invalid traffic, masking how widespread ad fraud truly is. Why big brands lose more: Enterprise advertisers chasing cheap CPMs and big impression counts are prime targets for fraud. Regulation wonât save you: With no anti-fraud laws or enforcement in digital advertising, marketers must protect themselves.AIâs limited impact: Generative AI wonât solve or exponentially worsen ad fraudâit simply makes it easier for bad actors to scale fake content.
Key takeaways & lessons:
Dr. Augustine Fouâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/augustinefou
Fou Analytics Website: https://www.fouanalytics.comThis episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to The Skeptical Marketer and leave us a five-star review on your platform of choice. It really helps the show!
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Ad fraud isnât a bug in the system. It is the system.
In this episode of The Skeptical Marketer, host Jake Surrey sits down with Nasser Ouijdane, CEO of Tapper AI, to dig into the hidden mechanics of fraudulent traffic, botnets, and the black-box incentives that make digital advertising feel more Wild West than regulated marketplace. With experience as an entrepreneur and founder in the SaaS space, Nasser stumbled into ad fraud by accidentâand uncovered just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Today, heâs building technology to fight back, but heâs also brutally honest about the scale of the challenge.
The real cost of fake clicks: Nasser explains how invalid traffic inflates CPAs and CAC, drains budgets, and devalues legitimate publisher inventoryâwhile fraudsters pocket billions.Winners, losers, and enablers: Advertisers and users lose, fraudsters win, and ad tech intermediaries quietly profit. Fraud thrives because volume looks like success.Programmaticâs dirty secret: Multiple resales of low-quality inventory, invisible ad placements, and a supply chain where âfraud is a feature, not a bug.âWhy regulation fails: Even after a decade of warnings, industry self-policing hasnât worked. Nasser draws parallels with financeâwhere misrepresenting money has consequencesâand argues for transparency mandates.What marketers can do now: Donât assume the platforms have your back. Audit your traffic quality, look for anomalies, prevent fraud proactively, and hold vendors accountable. Otherwise, youâre just optimizing for noise.The bigger picture: If left unchecked, ad fraud will slowly bleed confidence out of digital marketing, shifting spend to closed ecosystems, squeezing out smaller players, and ultimately making advertising less effective for everyone but criminals.
Key takeaways & lessons:Nasser Ouijdaneâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nassero/
Tapper AI Website: https://tapper.ai
This episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to
The Skeptical Marketer and leave us a five-star review on your platform of choice. It really helps the show! -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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What happens when the worldâs biggest ad platform in the world starts hiding the receipts?
In this episode of The Skeptical Marketer, Jake sits down with Ed Leake, founder of God Tier Ads and one of the worldâs leading Google Adâs experts and trainers, to get under the hood of how Google Ads is working in the wild. Edâs seen it all: the wins, the faceplants, and the dashboards that look brilliant right up until your actual sales tank.
With a healthy distrust of platform defaults and a background in building tools that challenge them, Ed brings a sharp, unfiltered POV on where ad automation is heading â and what marketers need to do right now to stay in control.
Key takeaways & lessons:
The Performance Max paradox: Ed explains how PMax often âperformsâ beautifully on the surface, while quietly spending on irrelevant or low-intent placements that never convert.
Measurement, redefined: From data gaps to delayed conversions, the conversation explores how the way platforms report success is often disconnected from what actually drives business outcomes.
The Google Ads black hole: Hear why seasoned media buyers are flying blind in Googleâs current ecosystem â and how even smart brands are falling for shiny reporting without asking the right questions.
Client education is survival: Ed shares why agencies and marketers need to do a better job of setting expectations, showing real value, and pushing back on baked-in platform bias.
The future of tools and transparency: Jake and Ed chat about the rise of micro SaaS for marketers, and why more independent tools â not fewer â might be the antidote to over-trusting Big Tech.
Ed Leakeâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edleakeGod Tier Ads: https://www.godtierads.com
AdEvolver: https://www.adevolver.com
This episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to the show and give us a five-star review on your preferred platform. It really helps the show!
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If you think analytics is just about dashboards and attribution models, StĂ©phane Hamel is here to ruin your dayâin the best possible way.
In this episode of The Skeptical Marketer, Jake sits down with StĂ©phane Hamel, a digital analytics veteran, ethics advocate, and lecturer at UniversitĂ© Laval. With decades of experience and a sharp outsiderâs lens, StĂ©phane isnât afraid to ask the tough questions: Who benefits from your marketing data? What are the hidden trade-offs in automation? And why does the industry keep confusing âmore dataâ with âbetter decisionsâ?
This is a conversation about ethics, incentives, and the systems weâve blindly accepted.
Key takeaways & lessons:
The illusion of objectivity: StĂ©phane unpacks how data is never neutralâit reflects the assumptions, biases, and motivations of those who collect and interpret it.Marketingâs moral blind spot: Expect a frank discussion about consent theatre, tracking culture, and the lack of ethical frameworks guiding how brands use data to influence behaviour.When Google owns the scoreboard: StĂ©phane and Jake dive into the anti-trust concerns around Googleâs dominance in ad techâand why performance metrics might be more about protecting the platform than serving the marketer.Why GA4 broke trust: Hear why even seasoned analysts are walking away from Google Analytics, and what it signals about the future of measurement.Accountability in an automated world: With AI, automation, and opaque systems becoming the norm, StĂ©phane challenges marketers to think beyond efficiencyâand start asking whoâs left behind.StĂ©phane Hamelâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamel
UniversitĂ© Lavalâs Website: https://www.ulaval.ca/
This episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to the show and give us a five-star review on your preferred platform. It really helps the show!
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If youâve ever wondered whether Googleâs ad products are helping your businessâor bleeding it dryâthis episode of The Skeptical Marketer with guest Arielle Garcia is essential listening.
Arielle is the Chief Operating Officer of Check My Ads Institute, an independent nonprofit watchdog advocating for transparency in digital advertising. A former Chief Privacy & Responsibility Officer at a global media agency, Arielle has seen the ecosystem from both the inside and outsideâand sheâs not holding back.
Key takeaways & lessons:
The market has failed: Arielle explains why digital advertising today is riddled with conflicts of interest, opacity, and unchecked platform power. Google sets the rules, controls the auction, and serves both sidesâand thatâs a recipe for systemic failure, not free market success.
Performance Max, exposed: Youâll hear what happened when Check My Ads ran a small business-style test campaign using Googleâs default Performance Max settings. Spoiler: zero legit publisher placements, kidsâ videos, and park domains galore. Itâs a damning look at how Google quietly profits off ad dollars without oversight.
From watchdogs to whistleblowers: Arielle walks through why she left the holding company model, how Check My Ads is helping shape regulatory policy, and why self-regulation in digital media just doesnât cut it anymore.
Brand safety and the CSAM scandal: This episode dives into shocking recent research showing major ad platformsâincluding Googleâserving ads on websites known for child sexual abuse material. Arielle explains why this isnât a tech glitchâitâs a lack of due diligence and accountability.
What marketers can do: Jake and Arielle close out with practical advice for marketing leaders: donât blindly trust platform defaults, demand transparency, and stay skeptical. Because what you donât know about where your ads are running can hurt your brandâand your bottom line.
Arielle Garciaâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariellesgarcia
Check My Ads Institute: https://checkmyads.org/
This episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to the show and give us a five-star review on your preferred platform. It really helps the show!
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If youâre wondering where digital marketing is heading and how seismic shifts at Google and across the internet are impacting brands, then this episode of the Skeptical Marketer with guest Charlie Grinnell is a must-listen.
Charlie is the co-CEO and co-founder of Right Metric, a strategic insights partner specializing in analyzing huge digital datasets across web, search, social, and advertising for major brands. With a background spanning creative video production, brand-side marketing at Red Bull, and deep data analytics, Charlie brings a uniquely broad and data-powered perspective. Simply put, heâs witnessed digital marketingâs evolution from the front lines and now helps brands see big-picture trends that affect everyone.
Key takeaways & lessons:
The âSeismic Shiftâ in marketing: Charlie dissects why what weâre experiencing now isnât just about AI or âfaster changeâ but a true seismic shiftâdriven by audience behaviour, content saturation, and the explosion of new channels. He shows how these changes arenât just hypeâthey reshape how brands succeed.
The decline of traditional search: Both Jake and Charlie discuss how Googleâs dominance is fragmenting, why paid and organic search are less reliable, and how consumer trust and search habits are changing. Expect actionable advice on why you canât just rely on search and what to do instead.
Where to find your audience: The episode covers practical strategiesâlike using SparkToro, testing unexpected channels (Reddit, Discord, dark social), and focusing on âfishing where the fish areââto reach people where they actually spend time.
The return of creativity & media thinking: Discover why success now depends on marketing âlike a media company,â creating content ecosystems people love even before theyâre ready to buy, and why always-on, audience-first engagement matters more than ever.
The future of ads, privacy & measurement: Get clarity on cookies, privacy, antitrust forces, GA4âs challenges, and why small businesses must rethink their approach to get results in the new era.
Charlie Grinnellâs LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/charliegrinnell
RightMetricâs Website: https://www.rightmetric.co
RightMetricâs LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rightmetric
This episode is brought to you by clearmotive marketing, in partnership with Ptak & Co. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure you subscribe to the show and give us a five-star review on your preferred platform. It really helps the show!
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Big Tech is under the microscope â and weâre not looking away. The Skeptical Marketer is your guide to the digital world weâve built, featuring sharp, unfiltered conversations about antitrust trials, ad fraud, platform accountability, and the truth behind your media spend. Hosted by Jake Surrey, this show brings together legal experts, watchdogs, and insiders to unpack the forces shaping tech, trust, and transparency. New episodes every week.
