When thinking about the online advertising world, Charles Dicken’s immortal opening line from  A Tale of Two Cities frequently comes to mind. While most tend to remember “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” the next part of the same sentence applies equally well, namely “…it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” That at least is how I tend to think of the ever-changing performance marketing landscape. A better line might be, “The more things change, the more things stay the same.” Banner ads are flashier, online video a part of every day reality, and applications once possible only on the desktop are now available online, but human nature doesn’t change.

The New York Times, of all companies, was victim of classic human nature not too long ago. The newspaper’s online site was tricked into running ads for Vonage by a company that was not Vonage. Like any good scammer, they ran legitimate ads until no was looking, i.e. the weekend, at which time they switched from Vonage ads to phony virus-protection ads. According to reports, the new ads attempted to have users download supposed security software that ultimately bombarded users with ads until they paid for a piece of software that removed the newly installed virus. It’s an all too familiar scam that only highlights many of the vulnerabilities in the online ad ecosystem, especially in regards to display advertising. And if the NY Times is vulnerable, just imagine what lesser transgressions occur on a more regular basis. That is exactly what the New York based company PerformLine looks to make known so that advertisers and publishers don’t find themselves the unwitting victim in the often cat and mouse game of online monetization.

Founded almost two years ago by 12-year veteran of the online advertising space Alex Baydin, PerformLine has an ambitious goal-a goal that becomes more valuable with time, not less. In a world with only a handful of sites and ad placements, keeping track of what is running where is a relatively easy task. However, it is now virtually impossible to know where your ads run. And, despite assurances from networks about the quality of sites in their network, even they spend more time than they’d like battling rogue publishers putting their code on undesirable content. If PerformLine has its way, advertisers will rest assured and feel more in control. The PerformMatch platform focuses on providing transparency to the display process, giving advertisers a visible trail to follow and scoring sites based on their compliance to the terms set forth by the advertiser. PerformMatch is a campaign verification platform that looks to find and eliminate waste by acting as an independent third-party and automating the process so that it doesn’t become the unofficial job of the advertiser.

(Screenshot of PerformMatch interface. Click to enlarge.)

Bad behavior doesn’t confine itself to the display landscape, but this is the area with a lot of room for improvement. Display and email are the first two areas that PerformLine’s PerformMatch focuses on. As is the case with display, the company has proprietary technology allowing them to flag offending or potentially violating email creative so that advertisers can review it. Among other things, this allows advertisers to gain visibility into which subject lines and creative actually drive visitors to their pages. PerformMatch works for both advertisers and networks who want to make sure that traffic sources are compliant and not using troublesome ads or showing ads on compromising sites.

According to Alex Baydin, the company will begin with display and email, but the product road map has them creating similar optics into other major drivers of traffic, including search. In Baydin’s opinion, what is happening to the online marketing landscape today is no different than click fraud. It simply has another name-targeting fraud. Every time an advertiser’s message appears in a place or in context that it shouldn’t, that is fraud. Many companies have made click fraud known and offer ways to help advertisers, but far fewer, if any, are tackling the equally detrimental problem of targeting fraud. Ignorance can be bliss until your customers write you and tell you otherwise. Just ask the NY Times.