Global Ad Fraud Is Down, Despite Increased Spending

Money lost to ad fraud is at a new low, eating up just $5.8 billion dollars. This is a significant improvement and a new low, according to the Association of National Advertisers and White Ops. The two organizations analyzed 600,000 domains, in 2,400 ad campaigns with 27 billion impressions in their study. The dip in estimated losses from ad fraud is particularly significant given that digital ad spending has increased over that same time period. Just between 2017 and 2019, ad spending grew by 25 percent and, even though there are more opportunities for ad fraud given the increased spending, ad fraud losses are down.

The Ad-Tech industry has been able to shrink the amount of ad fraud in part because of how they responded to the problem. Adopting text files, increasing transparency in ad buys, and prosecuting and punishing those that engage in ad fraud have helped the situation. Much like eradicating a virus, the weakest links have been addressed through these measures, but the more sophisticated fraudsters are still an issue as evidence by the $5.8 billion-dollar price tag on ad fraud losses estimated in this year's report.