‘A blatant waste of investment for brands’: IAB warns against Made For Advertising sites

IAB Australia has struck out against Made for Advertising sites, urging the Australian advertising industry to work collaboratively to minimise ad spends on these sites, as well as with any associated participants.

Made-for-Advertising websites are those sites “built on catchy headlines, clickbait, and controversial content to drive traffic and ad revenue”, according to IAB. They use clickbait headlines, slide shows, interlinked websites, intrusive ads, and pop-ups to just drain ad revenue.

The IAB Executive Tech Council has issued a Made for Advertising guidance paper, which blasts these MFAs as “a blatant waste of investment for brands that expose their ad campaigns to such sites”, and notes MFAs “result in poor consumer experiences which erodes trust in the industry”.