Is MFA Traffic Worth It? Strategies for SSPs to Filter Inventory and Protect Premium Demand

Made-for-advertising (MFA) websites present ongoing challenges for supply-side platforms (SSPs). While these arbitrage-driven sites can temporarily inflate impression counts and boost short-term revenues, they often damage advertiser trust and divert budgets away from high-quality publishers. For SSPs, the critical question is whether MFA traffic justifies the associated risks and how they can effectively distinguish low-quality inventory from genuinely valuable content.

Understanding the Risks of Pure MFA

MFA sites typically prioritize generating ad revenue over providing meaningful content or a positive user experience. In 2023, around 15% of programmatic ad spending went to MFA placements, despite minimal returns for advertisers. Recent efforts to identify and filter these sites have helped decrease this number to approximately 4%. Data indicates a clear justification for these actions: MFA domains typically experience invalid traffic (IVT) rates roughly 20% higher than non-MFA sites. Furthermore, common tactics such as ad stacking and frequent ad auto-refresh result in artificially inflated impressions without genuine user engagement, translating into poor ROI, reduced brand trust, and inefficient budget use for advertisers.

Differentiating Good MFA from Bad MFA

Not all sites that purchase traffic should be automatically labeled as MFA. SSPs should avoid broad generalizations and instead differentiate between truly low-value MFA sites, characterized by superficial, clickbait-heavy content, and niche sites that buy traffic yet deliver strong performance metrics.

A crucial factor is user intent. Sites acquiring targeted traffic, especially through high-intent channels like Google Search, can generate significant advertiser value. Industry analysis demonstrates that specialized publishers often achieve better results in terms of cost-per-action (CPA) and return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) compared to broader, so-called "premium" publishers.

Real-World Example

Consider a gardening coupon website that purchases Google Search traffic for keywords like "discount gardening tools" or "spring planting promotions." Although ad density might be high, the site’s content aligns closely with user search intent. Consequently, visitors driven from search ads often have high purchase intent, leading to impressive performance metrics. One advertiser achieved a 3× ROAS on this particular site, underscoring the point that paid traffic, when accurately aligned with consumer intent, can be highly effective.

Five Strategies to Protect Premium Demand

1. Pre-Bid Filtering:
Employ advanced real-time IVT detection and brand safety solutions (such as DoubleVerify and IAS) to proactively block identified MFA domains. Using regularly updated third-party blocklists (e.g., from Jounce Media) is a recommended best practice.

2. Machine Learning Scoring:
Implement machine learning algorithms to evaluate traffic quality based on post-click engagement, such as conversion rates, bounce rates, and user interaction depth. Sites displaying superficial engagement without subsequent meaningful actions should be flagged.

3. Ensuring Supply Chain Transparency:
Vigilantly enforce ads.txt and sellers.json standards. Unauthorized or opaque supply paths are typical red flags associated with MFA. Regularly auditing for cloned sites or duplicate inventory is also essential.

4. Dynamic Pricing Controls:
Utilize dynamic floor pricing mechanisms or selectively throttle suspect ad placements. Increasing floor prices makes MFA arbitrage less economically viable, favoring higher-quality inventory.

5. Transparent Feedback Mechanisms:
Facilitate open data sharing and collaboration with demand-side platforms (DSPs). Transparent reporting of conversion and performance data reassures buyers that the SSP is actively managing and optimizing its inventory, thereby encouraging greater trust and increased budget allocation.

Conclusion

Although MFA traffic can superficially inflate impression volumes, SSPs aiming for sustainable success must prioritize inventory quality. The objective is not merely to block undesirable inventory but to identify and promote traffic that genuinely benefits advertisers. Through advanced filtering techniques, proactive transparency, and close collaboration with DSPs, SSPs can effectively protect premium demand and enhance the overall health of the advertising ecosystem.

It's time to thoroughly review your inventory management processes, enhance quality scoring methods, and deepen collaboration with demand partners. Effective MFA filtering isn't optional, it's essential to your platform’s long-term competitive advantage. Layer AdGoat's DMO onto your SSP's MFA safeguards to monetize clean inventory, reclaim trust, and boost win rate.