There must be a lot of potential in the ad verification space because there's an awful lot of VC money flowing into this burgeoning area of display. A lot of companies in the US and in Europe active in the area of ad verification have been raising considerable sums of money. Adsafe is the latest in a growing list. It announced today that it has raised a further $7.5 million dollars in funding. The money will be used for international expansion - particularly in Europe. There will also be further investment in product development.

Knowing where campaigns are being run is potentially big business. With ad verification tools, agencies and advertisers can see where ad networks are displaying their ads. IASH verification can no longer cut it for some media buyers - although there are rumours that the ad net auditing body is currently looking at real-time solutions. Regular inventory audits are well and good but too often rogue networks - and "good" ones, too - tend to stray. Ads appearing below-the-fold and on suspect sites happens more frequently than you think. And this is not idle speculation. It would seem to be an all too common practice to run brand advertising alongside inappropriate content.

Advertisers are losing money through wastage - and quality content sites are losing out on potential advertising budget. In this type of economy, it's completely unacceptable. This tech will doubtless lead to misbehaving ad network being kicked off media plans across Europe. But we're not there yet. Ad verification still can't ensure brand safety in real-time. Sure, they can provide an audit after the campaign is finished, but can't verify in real-time. Not my words, but the feedback from those using the different ad verification flavours currently available on the market. Of course there is a lot of investment in this area and working technology should arrive very soon.

As our industry adopts RTB as its preferred buying methodology, ad verification will be an essential piece in the growth of the display ad market. Brands want their message put in front of the right audience - but they are obsesses about brand safety. And rightly so. Expect to see more money pour into this area in the coming months.