Pre-bid MFA avoidance.
Made-for-Advertising (MFA) Sites
Avoid MFA sites, built solely to sell ad impressions, not to serve readers.
What are made-for-advertising sites?
A made-for-advertising site exists to monetize traffic, not to publish content people look for. The content is often thin, repurposed, or generated in bulk, and the layout is designed around ad slots. Visitors usually arrive through paid or recommended links, not search or direct visits, so the site can produce impressions at low cost and sell them in programmatic auctions.
Common characteristics
- High ad density. Many ad units per page, often refreshing or auto-playing.
- Thin or repetitive content. Listicles, slideshows, and articles split across many clicks to create more ad loads.
- Purchased traffic. Visitors arrive from paid social or recommendation widgets.
- Short, low-engagement visits. Time on page and return visits are low.
A single site rarely shows all five. Evaluating the combination is what separates MFA avoidance from a one-time blocklist.
Illustrative example of an MFA page (mock)
1
15 Kitchen Hacks You Won't Believe
2
AD | AD |
Next slideSlide 3 of 153
Recommended for you4
Sponsored link | Sponsored link | Sponsored link |
| 1 | Dense ad units |
| 2 | Thin content |
| 3 | Slideshow pagination |
| 4 | “Recommended for you” traffic widgets |
How MFA sites are identified
No single signal marks a site as MFA. Peer39 combines page-level content analysis with site-level quality indicators, then scores the inventory before the bid request is accepted. Page-level evaluation matters because quality varies inside one domain.
| Signal type | What it looks at | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Content quality | Thin, repetitive, or auto-generated text and low originality | Page |
| Page layout | Number and density of ad units against editorial content | Page |
| Site structure | Articles split across many pages, slideshows, and listicle formats | Site |
| Traffic pattern | Reliance on paid or recommended traffic and short visits | Site |
How to avoid MFA sites with Peer39
Peer39 applies the same quality standard before the bid.
- Select the MFA category in your DSP.
Add Peer39's Made for Advertising Fraud Pages category as an exclusion. - Add Peer39 Analytics.
Implement the Peer39 Analytics tag in your DSP to see where ads ran, including any MFA impressions, in the reporting dashboard. - Optimize while the campaign runs.
Use the dashboard to confirm the exclusion is holding and adjust in flight.
What to expect
| Cost | Post-buy reporting included at no additional cost with pre-bid categories. |
| Setup | Add the exclusion without changing existing targeting, pacing, or optimization settings. |
| Delivery | In one advertiser's campaign, the MFA exclusion improved conversions without affecting pacing or delivery. |
3x conversions. A transportation company found nearly 13% of its impressions running on MFA sites. After adding Peer39's MFA exclusion, its conversion rate tripled without affecting pacing or delivery, and it expanded the exclusion across its other display campaigns.
Peer39 and legacy verification vendors
Many buyers already pay legacy verification vendors to report MFA after the fact. Peer39 excludes MFA before the bid and confirms it in post-buy reporting - with no additional reporting fees.
- Five checks before the bid: brand safety and suitability, invalid traffic (IVT), viewability, made-for-advertising site avoidance, and connected TV (CTV) content quality.
- Accreditation: Peer39's invalid traffic detection and filtration is accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC).
MFA on connected TV
On CTV, the MFA equivalent is Fake Content: screensavers, mobile apps, and other non-streaming inventory sold as CTV.
In live campaign data, 6-7% of “CTV” impressions ran on inventory like this, and Peer39’s Safe from Fake CTV Content category brought it to zero.
Peer39 evaluates program-level signals such as show, network, and genre before the bid. The CTV Quality Score combines six indicators into one 0-100 score: completion rate, valid channels, divisive news, user-generated content, fake content, and overnight starts. Post-buy reporting lists the shows and channels where ads ran.
How MFA differs from brand safety and invalid traffic
An MFA site can be brand safe and its traffic can be human, and it can still be a poor place to spend. That is why MFA is checked separately.
| MFA | Brand safety and suitability | Invalid traffic (IVT) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question it answers | Is this inventory built to monetize traffic, not to serve an audience? | Is the content appropriate for this brand? | Is a person actually seeing this ad? |
| What is evaluated | Content quality, ad density, and traffic pattern | Content categories and tolerance tiers | Traffic source and behavior |
| Learn more | Brand suitability | Verification |
All three are available pre-bid as part of Peer39’s third-party ad verification solutions.
Frequently asked questions
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What is a made-for-advertising site?
A website built primarily to generate ad revenue, not to serve an audience. Made-for-advertising sites tend to have thin content, dense ad placements, and traffic bought from other sources.
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How much ad spend goes to made-for-advertising sites?
The ANA's benchmark studies found made-for-advertising sites took 15% of programmatic spend in 2023 and 6.2% in 2024. The share in any single campaign depends on its supply paths and controls; one Peer39 advertiser found nearly 13% of its impressions on MFA sites.
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How do advertisers avoid made-for-advertising sites?
By evaluating inventory before the bid and excluding what doesn't meet a quality standard, then confirming where ads ran in post-buy reporting. Blocklists alone fall behind because MFA sites change domains.
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Which Peer39 category excludes MFA inventory?
The Made for Advertising Fraud Pages category, applied as an exclusion in your DSP.
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Does Peer39 charge for MFA avoidance reporting?
No. Peer39 has no reporting fees.
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Does excluding MFA hurt scale or pacing?
In one advertiser's campaign, adding the MFA exclusion tripled the conversion rate without affecting pacing or delivery.
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Is MFA the same as brand safety?
No. Brand safety checks whether content is appropriate for a brand. MFA avoidance checks whether the inventory is built to serve an audience or only to carry ads. A site can pass brand safety and still be made for advertising.
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Does made-for-advertising inventory exist on connected TV?
There is a related issue on CTV, where CTV bid requests come from screensavers, mobile apps, and other non-streaming inventory sold as CTV.
Keep MFA out of the buy
Talk to Peer39 about adding MFA avoidance to an upcoming campaign.
