In the premium world of Connected TV and the broader Adtech ecosystem, reputation is everything. For our partner Cuedart, a leading player in the CTV space, scaling up meant confronting an increasingly sophisticated enemy: Ad Fraud.
While Cuedart’s fill rates appeared healthy, underlying issues like data center requests and invalid IP addresses triggered "Bundle ID blocks" from demand partners. This wasn't just a technical glitch; it directly hit Cuedart’s revenue and created constant friction regarding brand safety during monthly billing cycles.
By partnering with ClearTrust, Cuedart didn't just filter out bad actors, they rebuilt their operational foundation for superior ad verification.
The Challenge: IVT verification and detection
Before implementing ClearTrust, Cuedart was caught in a cycle of reactive troubleshooting. Despite maintaining high performance metrics across CTV advertising and Connected TV campaign, the team faced three critical roadblocks in their CTV ads pipeline:
- The Revenue Drain: Frequent Bundle ID blocks from demand partners acted as a "silent tax" on Cuedart’s inventory, creating a significant and unpredictable financial drain, often triggered by undetected Traffic Bot activity and broader Ad Fraud signals
- The Transparency Gap: Demand partners flagged concerns over data center traffic and rotating IP Addresses that Cuedart’s existing tools weren't catching, leading to a disconnect between perceived and actual inventory quality.
- The "Billing Cycle" Friction: Every month, the reconciliation process became a battleground due to IVT(Invalid Traffic) discrepancies, forcing manual review across fragmented Adtech systems and showing revenue recovery from CTV Ads.
"Reconciling and addressing concerns with our publisher partners was difficult, even when traffic partners claimed the inventory was already IVT-scanned. These issues recurred monthly during the billing process," - Manimaran, Cuedart.
The Solution: An Extension of the Technical Bench
Cuedart discovered ClearTrust through Project Limelight. They needed a single, unified Adtech platform that could handle the specific nuances of Connected TV, IA Banner, and Video.
The transition was immediate. We helped Cuedart move their core CTV advertising inventory to our platform to aggressively target their primary pain points: invalid IP addresses and SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic).
Rather than a standard software handoff, the ClearTrust support team functioned as a seamless extension of Cuedart’s own technical bench. We ensured every impression met the highest standards of verification.
The Results: 60% Less IVT and a New Level of Clarity
Since integrating our solution, Cuedart has transformed its day-to-day operations:
1. A Dramatic 60% Reduction in IVT
By catching ad fraud at the source, ClearTrust helped Cuedart achieve a 60% drop in invalid traffic(IVT). This immediately boosted the quality score of their CTV ads in the eyes of demand partners, stabilizing fill rates and protecting revenue.
2. From Guesswork to Precision
ClearTrust’s visibility into threat indicators( High, Medium, Low) replaced guesswork with actionable data. Cuedart now manages Bundle ID whitelisting and blacklisting with surgical precision, ensuring better brand safety within their post-bid workflow.
3. Data-Backed Partner Collaboration
Friction during billing cycles has been eliminated. With the availability of granular threat details, including flagged IP addresses - transparent, evidence-based conversations are now held with traffic partners.
"This has enabled us to work closely with our traffic partners to flag invalid bundle IDs based on threat details... allowing for more efficient demand optimization," says Manimaran,Cuedart.
Moving Forward: Scaling with Confidence
ClearTrust has done more than just solve an IVT problem; we provided Cuedart with a foundation for sustainable, predictable growth in Connected TV. By identifying and neutralizing SIVT at its source, Cuedart has stabilized its revenue streams and strengthened its market position.
Building on this success, Cuedart is now preparing to upgrade to ClearTrust’s pre-bid ad verification solution, moving their defense to the very front of the auction.
"The results from the post-bid implementation have been so successful that we are now planning to upgrade and implement ClearTrust’s pre-bid solution. It’s no longer just about identifying issues, it’s about optimizing our demand and scaling our business with a unified platform we can actually trust." — Manimaran, Cuedart
