Advertisers to lose US$42 billion in 2019 due to fraud

According to a new study from Juniper Research, advertisers will lose US$42 billion around the world due to fraud across online, mobile and in-app channels.

This figure represents a 21% increase from the reported $35 billion lost to advertising fraud in 2018.

The report states that the growth in loss to online scammers using more sophisticated techniques adopted and to smaller advertisers not adopting anti-fraud solutions.

Juniper predicts that advertisers will only save $16 billion of the ad spend that would otherwise be lost to fraud.

The research firm also expects that available ad inventory will grow faster than advertiser demand in the next four years.

Scammers are expected to take advantage of this trend by running fraudulent ads in this inventory.

The research also forecasts that spend on advertising over OTT (Over-the-Top) TV services will exceed $42 billion by 2023; rising from $28 billion in 2019.

However, it found a lack of standardization among OTT TV services leaves advertisers exposed to increased levels of fraud by simplifying the process needed to spoof advertising networks via connected TVs

Research author Sam Barker noted “OTT TV service providers must address the issue of advertising fraud if they wish to attract high value advertisers to their platforms…these players must prove the value of advertising on their services by minimizing exposure to ad fraud through the adoption of fraud detection and mitigation solutions specific to OTT TV solutions”.

“Accountability needs to come from advertisers first because they are holding the money of the brand…they need to be aware of the task at hand to keep a check on ad fraud…however, the whole ecosystem is responsible for the set up which is happening.” said Dheeraj Gupta, CTO and Co-founder of mFilterit, while talking to industry press.

New research by Juniper also found that advertisers’ total loss to fraud will rise to $100 billion by 2023. The report claims fraudsters will gravitate to advanced techniques such as spoofing advertising networks to falsify ad clicks and displayed ads, rather than labor-intensive activities such as app install farms.

Juniper forecasts that advertisers will only save $16 billion of potential lost ad spend to fraud; owing to a lack of adoption of anti-fraud solutions from smaller advertisers and the increasingly complex tactics of fraudsters.

Additionally, the research projects that the growth of ad media inventory from publishers will grow faster than advertisers’ demand over the next 4 years.

As a result, fraudulent players will look to fill this increasing gap between supply and demand by filling unused inventory with fraudulent ads

Source: Marketing Dive