Invalid Traffic & Anti-Fraud Policy

1. Why this policy matters

Invalid traffic harms everyone. Advertisers lose money on ads no real person saw. Demand partners may reduce spending or stop buying across the whole network. Honest publishers then earn less, even though they did nothing wrong.

This policy protects advertisers, the PublisherZera publisher network and every honest publisher who works with us. We take it seriously, and we expect every publisher to do the same.

2. Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to every publisher that uses the PublisherZera service, and to every website, app, page and ad placement managed through us. It forms part of our Publisher Terms. It also applies to anyone acting for a publisher, such as employees, contractors, agencies and traffic vendors.

You must also follow the policies of the ad platforms and demand partners that serve ads on your website, such as Google Ad Manager. If their rules are stricter than ours, their rules apply too.

3. What invalid traffic is

Invalid traffic (IVT) is any ad impression, click or other activity that does not come from a real person with genuine interest. This includes activity that is accidental, automated, incentivised, forced or fraudulent. It does not matter whether it was intentional.

The advertising industry usually divides invalid traffic into two types:

• General invalid traffic (GIVT): traffic that is fairly easy to identify with standard filtering. Examples are known search engine crawlers, data centre traffic, known bots and spiders, and traffic from non-browser tools.
• Sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT): traffic that is designed to look real and is harder to detect. Examples are bots that copy human behaviour, hijacked devices, malware, ad stacking, hidden ads, cookie stuffing, manipulated location or device data, and incentivised or falsely represented traffic.

Both types count as invalid traffic under this policy.

4. Prohibited traffic sources and practices

You must not use, allow or benefit from any of the following. This list gives examples. It is not complete, and any other practice that creates invalid activity is also prohibited.

Clicks and impressions

• Clicking your own ads, or viewing your own pages repeatedly to create impressions. This includes clicks by you, your staff, family or friends.
• Asking anyone to click or view ads, for example with phrases like "click here", "support us by clicking our ads", or arrows pointing to ads.
• Incentivised or paid-to-click traffic: offering money, points, rewards, prizes or any other benefit to people for viewing or clicking ads, or for visiting your website.
• Bots and automated tools: robots, scripts, spiders, crawlers, emulators, click farms or any software that creates fake impressions or clicks.

Traffic sources

• Traffic exchanges and similar networks where members visit each other's websites.
• Auto-surf programs that load pages automatically without real user action.
• Buying cheap or low-quality traffic, including traffic from sources that cannot clearly show where their visitors come from, or that promise large volumes at very low prices.
• URL-shortener and interstitial traffic: traffic sent through link shorteners, "pay-per-link" services, or pages that make users wait or view ads before reaching their real destination.
• Traffic from unsolicited email (spam), malware, browser hijacking, unwanted toolbars or extensions.

Ad placement and page behaviour

• Forced redirects: sending users to another page or website without their clear choice.
• Pop-unders and pop-ups that open new windows or tabs to create impressions.
• Auto-refreshing ads or pages to create extra impressions.
• Hidden or stacked ads: ads that are invisible, too small to see, placed behind other content, or layered on top of each other.
• Iframe or embedding tricks: loading your pages or ads inside frames, other websites or hidden windows to inflate impressions.
• Misleading placements that cause accidental clicks, such as ads placed very close to buttons, menus, download links or games, ads that look like site content or navigation, or ads that move when users try to click something else.
• Changing ad code in ways not approved by us, or hiding the true website or page where ads are shown.

5. How we detect invalid traffic

We use several layers of protection to find invalid traffic. These include:

• Automated filtering of impressions and clicks;
• Signals from ad platforms and demand partners, who run their own invalid-traffic detection;
• Manual review of accounts, pages and ad placements by our team; and
• Traffic-source review, including checks on where visitors come from and how they behave.

To keep these protections effective, we do not share details of our detection methods, thresholds or tools. We may also be unable to share details that demand partners give us in confidence. We may contact you to ask questions about your traffic at any time.

Ad platforms and demand partners make their own decisions about what traffic is invalid. We cannot overrule those decisions.

6. Your responsibilities as a publisher

You are responsible for all traffic to your website, even if a third party caused it. To protect your account, you must:

• Monitor your traffic regularly and watch for unusual spikes, very high click-through rates, unexpected countries or strange user behaviour.
• Vet any paid traffic vendor carefully before you buy traffic or run promotions. Ask how they find visitors, avoid vendors with unclear sources, and stop any campaign that looks suspicious. You remain responsible for traffic you buy.
• Keep analytics access available on request. If we ask, you must give us timely access to, or reports from, your analytics tools (for example, read-only access) so we can review your traffic.
• Report suspicious activity quickly. If you notice something unusual, or believe someone is targeting your ads with invalid clicks, email publishers@publisherzera.com right away with as much detail as you can.
• Tell us about traffic sources. Be honest in your application and keep us updated about major changes to your traffic sources, such as new paid campaigns.
• Follow our Acceptable Use Policy, our publisher requirements and all ad platform policies.

7. Consequences of invalid traffic

If we, an ad platform or a demand partner identifies invalid traffic or a breach of this policy, we may take one or more of the following actions. The action will depend on how serious the issue is, whether it is repeated, and whether you cooperate.

• Revenue deductions: we do not pay for invalid activity. We will deduct revenue related to invalid activity that is identified by us or by demand partners, including amounts that demand partners do not pay us or later claim back.
• Withholding payments: we may hold payments, fully or partly, while we investigate. If the investigation shows no problem, we will release the held amount in the next payment cycle.
• Ad serving limits: we may limit or pause ads on certain pages, placements or whole websites.
• Suspension: we may suspend your account while we investigate or until you fix the problem.
• Termination: we may end our relationship with you, especially for serious, intentional or repeated violations.
• Clawback: if we already paid you for activity that is later found to be invalid, we may deduct that amount from future payments or ask you to repay it.

If your account is terminated for invalid traffic or fraud, any unpaid revenue linked to invalid activity will not be paid. We may also report fraud to ad platforms, demand partners or authorities where appropriate. Details about payments are in our Payments page and Publisher Terms.

Not every deduction means you did something wrong. Small amounts of invalid traffic are common on many websites, and demand partners routinely filter them. We will tell you when deductions are unusually high or when we need you to take action.

8. Appeals

If you believe we made a mistake, you can appeal. To appeal:

1. Email publishers@publisherzera.com within 30 days of the date we told you about the action.
2. Use the subject line "IVT appeal" and include your website and account details.
3. Explain why you believe the decision is wrong.
4. Include evidence, such as analytics reports, traffic source details, campaign records, invoices from traffic vendors, or changes you made to fix the problem.

We will review your appeal and the evidence carefully and reply as soon as we reasonably can. We may ask for more information. Our decision after the appeal is final for that matter.

Please note that where a deduction or decision comes from an ad platform or demand partner, we can share your evidence with them, but we cannot guarantee they will change their decision.

9. Privacy and consent on your website

Ad platforms and demand partners may use cookies and similar technologies on your website, including to detect invalid traffic. You are responsible for your own privacy policy and for getting consent where the law requires it. For visitors from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, this includes using a Google-certified consent management platform. See our Cookie Policy for more details.

10. Changes to this policy

Fraud methods and industry standards change over time. We may update this policy to respond to new risks or new requirements from ad platforms. We will post the updated version on this page and change the "Effective" date. For important changes, we will also tell active publishers by email.

11. Contact and reporting

To report suspicious traffic, ask a question about this policy or submit an appeal, email publishers@publisherzera.com. For legal matters, contact legal@publisherzera.com.