Fraud accounts for an estimated 6.4% of all digital ad spending in the US – or roughly $8 billion, according to a new report [download page] from Borrell Associates. But ad fraud has a bigger effect in some markets than others: in fact, it represents almost one-tenth of digital ad spending in some local markets, including New Haven, CT (9.8%) and Hagerstown, MD (9.6%).
The dollar impact can obviously be greater in metropolitan areas like Washington DC, where an estimated $257.3 million was lost in 2016 (8.5% of digital advertising).
The results of another study where media planners were asked about their top challenges support the notion that ad fraud is a cause for worry: some 78% of agency media planners specified ad fraud as a major concern.
Those concerns might not go away anytime soon: Borrell forecasts that an estimated $15 billion could be lost to digital ad fraud in 2021, almost double the current losses.
Other Ad Fraud Findings:
Taken from our earlier article on brand risk:
- Ad fraud is more prevalent during the overnight hours, peaking at 4AM; and
- Ad fraud is almost twice as high on home pages than on article pages and risk grows as articles get older
