Is incentivized traffic fraud?
Not necessarily. Incentivized traffic comes from people who are rewarded, with points, game currency or cash, for viewing ads, visiting sites or installing apps. It is legitimate when disclosed and bought knowingly, such as rewarded video in games. It becomes fraud when it is disguised as organic or non-incentivized traffic and sold to advertisers who did not agree to it.
Incentivized traffic involves real humans, but their motivation is the reward rather than the ad, so engagement and conversion quality are usually low. Rewarded video is an accepted, clearly labelled format. Problems arise when publishers buy incentivized visits to inflate audience numbers, then sell the resulting impressions at normal prices.
The MRC IVT guidelines treat undisclosed incentivized activity as a form of manipulated human traffic. Buyers should require disclosure of any incentivized or sourced traffic, and measure beyond clicks, looking at time on site, return visits and sales.