Fraud prevention is never a one-and-done deal. It’s a delicate balancing act between staying ahead of the fraudsters while also enabling marketers to have more latitude to make precise decisions with data. At Apptrove, we don’t think of fraud protection as just a reactive process. We believe fraud protection should be configurable, and a continuous pattern of improvement.
That’s why we have made powerful enhancements to the Validation Rules and Rejected Postbacks. Both of these releases work hand-in-hand, as one helps you define what should be allowed in, while the other gives you clarity on what was sent back, and why.
Let’s take a closer look.
Validation Rules, Now Smarter and More Granular
Our Validation Rules feature has always allowed you to define what qualifies as valid, clean traffic. With this release, we’ve expanded its capabilities significantly, making it easier than ever to block fraud based on hyper-specific patterns.
Here’s what’s new:
● Customer Phone Number and City-Based Filtering
You can now apply validation rules based on customer phone number and city. Whether you’re noticing unusual activity concentrated in specific geographies or from particular number patterns, you now have the tools to act on it. This is especially useful in regions where fraud clusters tend to reoccur.
● Advanced Logic: Multiple Conditions on a Single KPI
We’ve made the logic engine more powerful. You can now apply AND/OR operators on a single metric, meaning multiple conditions can be set on the same KPI. For example, you might want to reject traffic where the City = Delhi AND Phone Number starts with ‘999’. This kind of layered logic enables more nuanced filtering based on your campaign’s specific risk indicators.
● Expanded Operator List
To further improve flexibility, we’ve added new operators like:
- includes
- not in list
- list
- contains
This makes it easier to apply rules using lists of trusted or flagged values. For instance, you can now reject a set of custom IDs or order IDs using a single rule—no need to duplicate conditions manually.
You can explore all the new capabilities in our Validation Rules knowledge base article.
Rejected Postbacks: Real-Time Fraud Visibility for Your Partners
Fraudulent installs can now be flagged and rejected in real time, and with this release, rejected postbacks are also sent directly to your ad partners. This capability allows for real-time rejected postbacks as they are triggered once an install is flagged and rejected from your validation rules.
Here’s why this matters:
- Instant visibility for partners: Ad networks and partners will see exactly which installs were rejected, and why.
- Immediate action: If your partners receive a quicker rejected postback, they can instantly act (pause the source, move budget, or update targeting).
- Audit-friendly reporting: A transparent set of rejected postbacks reduces ambiguity and potential billing conflicts.
- No data discrepancy: The same fraud metrics reflected on your Apptrove advertiser panel will also appear on your partners’ performance panels, ensuring full alignment and eliminating data discrepancies.
Your partners will see this data directly in the Apptrove panel, creating trust and accountability within your ecosystem. Check out the Rejected Postbacks guide for more information on the workflow.
Ready to Get Started?
- Visit your Apptrove dashboard
- Navigate to the Validation Rules section to explore new filters and operators
- Enable Rejected Postbacks for all key partners
- Review your rejection logs to fine-tune your setup
If you need help configuring the new rules or setting up postbacks, our support team is always available to assist.
Apptrove wants to bring you powerful and user-friendly tools that can assist you in protecting your performance marketing campaigns, without slowing you down.
More announcements are coming soon, stay tuned.