Integral Ad Science (IAS) has expanded its Made for Advertising (MFA) AI-driven solution, a move set to optimise the programmatic buying process by measuring and optimising against both MFA and Ad Clutter sites.

MFA sites are web pages built for ad arbitrage, featuring low-quality content created solely to serve ads. Ad Clutter sites, on the other hand, are characterised by high ad density and high ad-to-content ratio, which often leads to lower performance.

IAS said its enhanced solution utilises advanced machine learning technology and additional signals built into its core platform to identify MFA and Ad Clutter sites. According to the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) recent Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study, MFA websites accounted for 21% of study impressions and 15% of ad spend. IAS analysis found traffic served on sites classified as non-MFA have a +278% better conversion rate than traffic served on sites classified as MFA.

“With the proliferation of MFA, global advertisers need safeguards to avoid ad arbitrage and low performing, high ad density sites while optimising for media quality and performance," IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider, said. "We’re proud to offer the industry’s first pressure-tested solution for detecting and avoiding MFA and Ad Clutter sites at scale while also preserving the flexibility to reach audiences across a diverse range of publishers.”

IAS's solution supports the ANA's definition of MFA and has been trained against Sincera’s deep library of metadata along with Jounce Media’s widely adopted list of MFA domains. The solution uses supply chain data and IAS-measured site characteristics to report on MFA Ads, MFA Rate, Ad Clutter Ads, and Ad Clutter Rate.

President of Jounce Media, Chris Kane, weighed in on the issue, urging the industry not to conflate Made For Advertising supply with other forms of low-quality advertising experiences.

"MFA publishers operate an ad arbitrage business model that has no place in the programmatic supply chain. Separately, media companies that produce original content and attract organic visitors sometimes engage in aggressive monetisation techniques that dilute the value of advertising. By clearly distinguishing MFA supply from ad clutter, IAS is giving media buyers the tools they need to make informed decisions about inventory quality," he said.

IAS's MFA AI-driven site measurement and optimisation solution will be available globally beginning in Q2 2024.