Marketers need to be proactive to combat ad fraud- Beverly Chen

In this day and age, new technologies like 5G, VR, AR and IoT is creating a scenario where there is a merging of traditional mediums and digital avenues.

This is where ad fraud is now taking hold in a big way. AppsFlyer, the global leader in mobile attribution and marketing analytics, recently released its APAC Ad Fraud Report 2019, providing marketers with the most comprehensive report to date on the evolving mobile advertising industry in the region.

Covering activity between the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019 (November 2018 – April 2019), the report examines 2.5 billion installs across over 8,000 apps in Entertainment, Finance, Gaming, Shopping, Travel and Utilities.

Over the last six months, had APAC marketers been left without protection, they would be out US$650 million. Southeast Asia has been identified as a key target for fraudsters, with over US$260 million at risk – the highest in APAC – with India’s financial exposure at US$186 million following behind.

This follows Southeast Asia’s high mobile penetration rates, increasing connectivity quality, and rapid integration of e-payment methods, making it a highly lucrative target for fraudsters due to the sheer size of users and high payouts that these markets produce.

The issue is further compounded by lower resources for app developers, the prevalence of fraudulent traffic in local networks and high marketer demand for volume.

Beverly Chen, APAC Marketing Director at AppsFlyer, said, “Southeast Asia is an attractive target for fraudsters, with marketers in the region tapping on the mobile-first and growing digital nature of the population to drive marketing priorities.”

She said that fraud distorts and pollutes the data businesses rely on to make decisions, resulting in a misinformed use of resources, ineffective spending and financial losses.

“To combat this, marketers need to have multi-layered protection solutions in place as well as understand and remain vigilant against the rising threat of bots, non-human traffic and the always-evolving techniques of bad actors in order to maintain their competitive advantage,” she concluded.

Major takeaways from the report include:

1. App Install fraud continues to be prevalent in the entire APAC region: Maintaining an average rate that is 60% higher than the global average, with the financial exposure of fraud in the region exceeding $650 million in six months.

2. Finance and Shopping apps are the most affected, with Finance apps having the highest targeted ad fraud victims in the region at 48.1%, followed by Shopping apps and Travel apps respectively, at 32.2% and 29.7%, in line with the region’s growing consumer prosperity. This is due to higher payouts and scale of user base, compared to the highly sophisticated anti-fraud protection often used by gaming marketers.

3. The use of bots and install hijacking remain the most common attacks: They have been tackled with real-time, adaptive anti-fraud solutions, while click flooding is on the decline.

To access the full version of the latest AppsFlyer APAC Ad Fraud Report, please visit: https://www.appsflyer.com/resources/fraud/apac-app-install-fraud-650-million/