There has been a lot of talk within the internet marketing and digital advertising communities concerning the problem of ad fraud. While it hasn’t exactly been a secret outside of the digital marketing communities in the past, it is really starting to draw more and more attention of late. The Wall Street Journal, for example, recently published an article titled, “A ‘Crisis’ in Online Ads: One-Third of Traffic is Bogus.”
In the article they note that, “About 36% of all Web traffic is considered fake, the product of computers hijacked by viruses and programmed to visit sites, according to estimates cited recently by the Interactive Advertising Bureau trade group.”
This is just the latest article to be published on high profile publications, and it certainly won’t be the last. While there is certainly some encouraging news about digital ad networks starting to take the threat of ad fraud more seriously, it is difficult to defend the idea that enough is being done.
With estimates suggesting that brands will be spending $50 Billion in digital advertising in the US this year, it is hard to imagine them continuing to accept the huge amounts of fraud. It was often overlooked because digital advertising was so cheap, and effective, but as the costs continue to rise, brands will be demanding more.
Many experts believe that the high rates of fraud are already holding companies back from increasing their investments in digital ads. Quentin George, co-founder of ad-tech firm Unbound said, “The clients we work with would love to spend more money in digital, but until we give them more control and transparency on how the money is being spent, they will continue to have questions and hold money back.”
It may be impossible to estimate exactly how much money is being held back by brands due to the rampant digital fraud, but it is likely very significant.
In addition, brands are starting to push back to recoup some of the losses they are paying for related to digital ad fraud. According to the Wall Street Journal article, Verizon Wireless and L’Oreal are among the advertisers who have demanded free ad space as compensation for the fraudulent ads they had already paid for. Many major companies are also hiring third party firms to investigate the impact of ad fraud, so they can adjust their marketing agreements with digital ad networks.
It seems that brands are really starting to push back, and demand improved results. How the ad networks will respond over the coming months may determine how many marketing dollars are going to flow into digital advertising for years to come.
You can read the Wall Street Journal article HERE.
