In the convoluted world of online advertising, where ethics often take a backseat to profits, Israeli ad tech giant IntangoMedia has sent shockwaves through the industry with its audacious acquisition of Reignn, a content management system boasting ownership of no less than ten publications. While the $10 million deal may appear to be another innocuous business maneuver, insiders are raising red flags, declaring Reignn to be nothing short of a Made-for-Advertising (MFA) scam that egregiously manipulates the system in defiance of ethical norms and network regulations.
CEO Uri Lichter, in an exclusive disclosure to Axios, unveiled the controversial acquisition, sending shockwaves through the industry and leaving many experts deeply skeptical of IntangoMedia’s motives. Notably, A.J. Carrillo, the custodian of the master MFA list, pulled no punches as he weighed in on the matter, declaring, “These MFA companies extract billions annually from legitimate domestic U.S. publishers ranging from local papers to larger national pubs using their software to game programmatic auctions. REIGNN is a usual suspect on my master MFA list.”
Jud Spencer, a prominent voice from the influential mega-network The Trade Desk, echoed Carrillo’s concerns. “This is a pretty clear description of all MFA,” he opined, exposing the sinister underbelly of the MFA industry. Spencer highlighted a disconcerting reality: as advertising budgets remain mostly fixed, the rampant prevalence of MFA enterprises diverts a substantial chunk of resources away from journalism, leading to layoffs and a continuous erosion of the industry’s integrity.
Even the enigmatic Adtech God, shrouded in anonymity yet renowned for insights, validated the mounting skepticism, cautioning, “Don’t worry Jud. Everyone’s celebrating that people are now removing MFAs from their allow lists… 5 min later… But we didn’t have a clear definition of MFAs so those 23,698 sites seemed ok to add to the allow list.”
But why has the spotlight suddenly shifted towards these alleged “clear scams”? For Joe Zappa, founder of Sharp Pen Media, the MFA discourse’s resurgence is emblematic of a larger trend in the industry. He articulated, “The MFA discourse happening in adtech is a great marketing case study. Companies in our industry are spending millions per year to make their pet issue the dominant topic of discussion.” Zappa delved into the psychology driving the anti-MFA movement, as the crusade resonates on a profound level, reflecting not just wasted ad spend, but the pilfering of funds from legitimate publishers who are in dire need of support.
In a candid exchange, I questioned Zappa about the apparent lag in addressing the MFA menace despite its longstanding presence. His response was unequivocal, “I think industry influencers, e.g. trade press, had become so accustomed to fraud and the like that the topic wasn’t sexy. To Paul’s point, maybe because of the economic environment, it’s become sexy again, and now the snowball is rolling downhill.”
Dave Morgan of Simulmedia added a layer of complexity, pointing out that trade media’s reliance on MFA enablers for sponsorship support complicates efforts to call out their wrongdoing. The very ecosystem meant to disseminate the truth often finds itself entangled in a web of allegiances.
Enter Reignn, the centerpiece of this storm. On the surface, they present themselves as content-rich sites, a treasure trove for visitors seeking valuable information. However, industry insiders paint a damning portrait of a company adept at exploiting the system’s weaknesses. They assert that Reignn’s publications are essentially dynamically generated pages, manipulated through keyword optimization to display high-ticket ads. What ensues, according to whistleblowers who accuse the company of orchestrating scams, is a sleight of hand. Reignn, these insiders assert, purchases hefty volumes of inexpensive traffic, funneling them to pages devoid of organic traffic. Their ultimate goal? Coaxing users into clicking on ads that, unbeknownst to advertisers, are often charged at a premium rate, generating sizable profits.
The deception at play here is stark and unambiguous. This study unearths a shocking statistic: advertisers are squandering a staggering 21% of their programmatic display ad budgets on these spammy, MFA websites. Known for their clickbait headlines, subpar content, intrusive ads, and infuriating user experience, MFA sites rake in billions in ad clicks annually, duping advertisers into pouring money into underperforming, and sometimes outright fraudulent, ventures. All the while, these ill-gotten gains are facilitated by some of the most prominent programmatic exchanges globally.
For the uninitiated, understanding what MFA sites entail is crucial. These are platforms crafted with a singular objective: ad arbitrage. Publishers exploit the gap between revenue generated from users clicking on ads and the cost of acquiring these users. The modus operandi is distressingly clear—employ sensational headlines, bait users with clickbait content, and inundate pages with a deluge of ads. The core aim? To maximize ad impressions and clicks, often through manipulative pagination navigation that coerces users to click through multiple pages, inadvertently stumbling upon ads.
To add a layer of duplicity, MFA sites have managed to infiltrate even reputable ad networks like Outbrain and Yahoo Native, cloaking their nefarious activities under the guise of “native ads.” This audacious exploitation, however, stands in stark defiance of Google’s ad placement policies, which explicitly prohibit pages drowning in ads and those encouraging accidental clicks. MFA publishers, though, cunningly sidestep Google’s Adsense, resorting to unsavory ad networks like Taboola and Outbrain or others that route ad inventory through low-quality sellers.
These publishers sometimes resort to an audacious trick: they limit excessive ads only for users arriving from advertising channels, duping Google’s scrutiny while still earning the ad revenue. Consequently, MFA sites offer a treasure trove of inventory, often amounting to billions of impressions, with CPM rates 30-40% lower than legitimate sites, making it an uphill battle to dissuade marketers from indulging in this reckless spree.
The story of IntangoMedia’s acquisition of Reignn serves as a stark reminder of the deep-rooted challenges within the ad tech industry, where the pursuit of profit sometimes trumps ethical considerations. As the industry grapples with these unscrupulous practices, the echo of the MFA menace reverberates louder than ever, demanding a reckoning that extends far beyond the business boardroom.
