TrafficGuard expands New York base amid US ad fraud surge

TrafficGuard has formally launched operations in the United States and expanded its base in New York, as advertisers face rising levels of invalid traffic and ad fraud linked to increasingly automated media buying.

Chief executive Mathew Ratty has relocated to New York, where the company already has commercial and customer-facing staff. The move signals a push for local leadership and closer engagement with large advertisers and channel partners.

Ad fraud is a growing concern as marketing budgets shift across search, social, programmatic and app-based advertising. Industry forecasts cited by TrafficGuard estimate losses could reach USD $172 billion by 2028.

TrafficGuard sells software that verifies advertising traffic and flags invalid activity, including bot traffic and non-genuine conversions that can distort performance data and inflate costs. It positions the product as a way to protect campaign measurement and reduce wasted spend across multiple digital channels.

TrafficGuard works with more than 5,000 customers and counts Coinbase, Disney+, Deezer and HP among its clients. It operates as a product of Adveritas, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker AV1.

US focus

The expansion comes as advertisers demand closer scrutiny of traffic quality and conversion signals. AI-driven automation has increased the volume of synthetic activity that can resemble genuine customer behaviour, creating risks for attribution and optimisation, particularly for brands running large budgets across many platforms.

Ratty said he plans to meet customers and partners as TrafficGuard scales its presence. He linked the move to a rise in sophisticated fraud and to broader issues of non-genuine and non-incremental traffic, which can skew reporting and decision-making even when it does not meet the threshold of fraud.

"We're seeing a rapid increase in sophisticated ad fraud alongside high volumes of non-genuine and non-incremental traffic in the United States, with impacts on budgets becoming much more frequent," said Mathew Ratty, CEO, TrafficGuard.

TrafficGuard argues the issue goes beyond blocking obvious invalid clicks. Advertisers also need confidence in the data feeding optimisation systems and performance reporting.

"For U.S advertisers operating at scale, it's no longer just about blocking bad clicks. It's about protecting decision-making, optimisation models, and growth efficiency. That's where TrafficGuard's enterprise-grade approach stands apart. We remain committed to building resilience to protect brands across the globe. With an expanding U.S team and accelerated product innovation, 2026 is shaping up to be a defining year for TrafficGuard," Ratty said.

Product leadership

TrafficGuard has appointed Miguel Lopes as chief product officer, based in the United States. Lopes will lead new product development and expand partnerships tied to customer acquisition channels.

The appointment follows a broader effort to build out the executive team as the company targets larger advertisers. Multi-channel campaigns can create complex patterns of traffic and conversion behaviour, making fraudulent or low-quality activity harder to isolate.

TrafficGuard said its platform detects and reports invalid traffic and ad fraud before it reaches advertising budgets. It also provides analysis and response tools as part of a wider effort to improve the reliability of paid media performance data.

Market pressure

Advertisers have increased investment in automated buying and optimisation tools in recent years. That shift has been accompanied by more sophisticated threats, including bot traffic that imitates human browsing patterns and conversion events designed to look like real customer actions.

Marketers also face operational challenges. Fraud and poor-quality traffic can inflate headline performance metrics, undermine attribution models and push teams to chase misleading signals. In sectors such as finance, eCommerce, travel and gaming, the financial impact can be amplified by high customer acquisition costs and aggressive competition for traffic.

TrafficGuard chief marketing officer Chad Kinlay said the US expansion reflects growing urgency among advertisers to validate performance data independently.

"It's clear that tackling ad fraud and invalid traffic more broadly is becoming a more urgent priority for advertisers in the U.S, and this is one of the main drivers behind our decision to expand in the region," Kinlay said.

Kinlay also pointed to increased automation in media buying as a factor shaping demand for verification.

"As AI accelerates automation across media buying, marketers need independent, enterprise-grade validation to ensure performance data can be trusted. TrafficGuard helps brands defend profitability today while building smarter, more resilient growth for the future," he said.

TrafficGuard plans to expand its US team further and increase its local presence as its customer base in the region grows.

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