Madhive secures local with HUMAN, protecting even the smallest campaigns from fraud
Challenge
CTV is projected to reach $37.7B in U.S. ad spend in 2026, raising the bar for quality and accountability. For Madhive and its local media partners, CTV digital ad fraud is a constant concern, where fragmentation, inconsistent transparency, and high CPMs make the channel a prime target.
Local advertisers must be strategic with every dollar. Every impression needs to reach a real person. As CTV spend climbs, fraud has risen, making it harder to catch and more costly when it slips through.
To earn trust in CTV, Madhive knew the platform must guarantee quality at every step, including:
- Mitigating invalid traffic (IVT) risk and improving advertiser ROI.
- Minimizing post-bid remediation to protect operational efficiency.
- Building trust with local advertisers that every impression really counts.
Processing trillions of transactions of multi-format inventory with global reach demands rigorous traffic quality protections to avoid invalid traffic (IVT), coupled with holistic policy compliance controls, such as supply chain data monitoring, to maintain buyer trust and publisher integrity.
Fighting ad fraud is not a “set-it-and-forget-it” problem. Magnite’s expert global marketplace quality team leverages a variety of tools to maintain:
- Real-time intelligence and data transparency
- Flexibility to adapt quickly to emerging threats
- An advantage in interpreting and acting on insights with speed
- Continuous detection across both pre-bid and post-bid environments
Maintaining buyer and publisher confidence means ad fraud mitigation is present, integrated, responsive, and aligned with business strategy.
Solution
Madhive partnered with HUMAN’s fraud prevention technology at two points: before the bid (Ad Fraud Defense) and after the impression (Ad Fraud Sensor). Think of it as a bouncer and a security camera.
Ad Fraud Defense (pre-bid defense):
In 2025, HUMAN blocked billions of fraudulent pre-bid requests (SIVT & GIVT). The majority were false representation, followed by automated browsing — forms of fraud notoriously difficult to detect in real time. This equates to immediate ROI: dollars saved up front rather than clawed back at a later time.
Ad Fraud Sensor (post-bid detection):
Traffic is then analyzed post-bid to review every bid request after it becomes an impression, effectively double-checking the work Ad Fraud Defense does.
Over time, detections and constant feedback loops allow for an always-on system that continuously adapts pre-bid detection against evolving ad fraud threats.
This partnership served as the backbone of Madhive’s Fraud Free Guarantee, announced earlier this year. Madhive’s Fraud Free Guarantee combines AI-powered verification, trusted partnerships, direct integrations, and independent audits to ensure local advertisers are protected from fraud at every step — from planning to activation to measurement.
Holistic Ecosystem Approach
Madhive’s differentiation lies in combining:
- Full stack solutions for reach extension and precision targeting, including the Fraud Free Guarantee
- Premium local inventory via direct publisher partnerships
- HUMAN’s fraud protection for a multi-layered approach to protect media investment
RESULTS
When the difference between a bot and a real viewer is the difference between an impression and a conversion, Madhive and HUMAN delivered:
- Scale + Precision: Advanced pre-bid protections stopped fraud before it happened, safeguarding advertiser dollars at scale.
- Market Differentiation: Madhive’s is positioned as a leader in transparent CTV transactions — including the introduction of its Fraud Free Guarantee in 2025.
- Advertiser ROI: Data-driven targeting with inventory quality controls, translates to real outcomes.
