Determining fraudulent indications of advertisement interaction based on identity

Abstract

An ad publisher provides an online system with user identifying information of users who interacted with an advertisement presented by the ad publisher and indications of interactions with the advertisement. A landing page is associated with the advertisement, and the advertiser provides the online system with user identifiers of users who interacted with the advertisement and requested the landing page. The online system determines whether the ad publisher fraudulently identifies interactions with the advertisement by comparing the user identifying information received from the ad publisher with the user identifiers received from the advertiser.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by an online system, user identifying information from an advertisement publisher system identifying one or more users of the online system who interacted with an advertisement via one or more client devices, the advertisement including a link to a landing page provided by an advertiser;   receiving, by the online system, a set of user identifiers from the advertiser, each of the user identifiers identifying a user of the online system who interacted with the advertisement and accessed the landing page using the link via a corresponding client device;   determining, by a processor, a number of the identified one or more users that do not match the set of user identifiers; and   responsive to determining that the number is greater than a blacklist threshold, preventing communication of one or more subsequent advertisements provided by the advertisement publisher system for presentation to users of the online system.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 selecting the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements based on user characteristics of the one or more users stored by the online system; and   providing the advertisement to the one or more client devices for presenting the advertisement to the one or more users.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the online system from the advertiser, targeting criteria indicating the user characteristics for an advertising campaign of the advertiser, the plurality of advertisements associated with the advertising campaign.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 determining a target number of unique users of the online system to be presented with at least one of the plurality of advertisements associated with the advertising campaign;   wherein providing the advertisement to the one or more client devices for presenting the advertisement to the one or more users is based on the target number.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that the identified one or more users of the online system completed a purchase associated with the advertisement using the one or more client devices.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that the identified one or more users of the online system installed an application associated with the advertisement using the one or more client devices.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein preventing the communication of one or more subsequent advertisements provided by the advertisement publisher system further comprises:
 determining that the online system previously placed the advertisement publisher system on probation for reporting fraudulent information regarding interactions with advertisements.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user identifying information includes a device identifier for each of the one or more client devices, and further comprising:
 associating each of the identified one or more users of the online system to a corresponding one of the one or more client devices based on the device identifiers.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the online system receives the user identifying information from the advertisement publisher system via a software development kit (SDK), provided by the online system, executing on the one or more client devices. 
     
     
         10 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
 receive, by an online system, user identifying information from an advertisement publisher system identifying one or more users of the online system who interacted with an advertisement via one or more client devices, the advertisement including a link to a landing page provided by an advertiser;   receive, by the online system, a set of user identifiers from the advertiser, each of the user identifiers identifying a user of the online system who interacted with the advertisement and accessed the landing page using the link via a corresponding client device;   determine, by a processor, a number of the identified one or more users that do not match the set of user identifiers; and   responsive to determining that the number is greater than a blacklist threshold, prevent communication of one or more subsequent advertisements provided by the advertisement publisher system for presentation to users of the online system.   
     
     
         11 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 select the advertisement from a plurality of advertisements based on user characteristics of the one or more users stored by the online system; and   provide the advertisement to the one or more client devices for presenting the advertisement to the one or more users.   
     
     
         12 . The computer program product of  claim 11 , having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 receive, by the online system from the advertiser, targeting criteria indicating the user characteristics for an advertising campaign of the advertiser, the plurality of advertisements associated with the advertising campaign.   
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 determine a target number of unique users of the online system to be presented with at least one of the plurality of advertisements associated with the advertising campaign;   wherein providing the advertisement to the one or more client devices for presenting the advertisement to the one or more users is based on the target number.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 determine that the identified one or more users of the online system completed a purchase associated with the advertisement using the one or more client devices.   
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 determine that the identified one or more users of the online system installed an application associated with the advertisement using the one or more client devices.   
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , wherein preventing the communication of one or more subsequent advertisements provided by the advertisement publisher system further comprises:
 determining that the online system previously placed the advertisement publisher system on probation for reporting fraudulent information regarding interactions with advertisements.   
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , wherein the user identifying information includes a device identifier for each of the one or more client devices, the computer program product having further instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
 associate each of the identified one or more users of the online system to a corresponding one of the one or more client devices based on the device identifiers.   
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 10 , wherein the online system receives the user identifying information from the advertisement publisher system via a software development kit (SDK), provided by the online system, executing on the one or more client devices.