Digital ads may be grabbing the lion’s share of budgets but a new study claims billions of pounds’ worth of spend is being siphoned off by so-called bots, which click on ads automatically.
According to the study, by digital security firm White Ops and the US Association of National Advertisers, almost 25% of video ads and 11% of display ads are viewed by fake consumers created by cyber crime networks.
In one of the most comprehensive investigations to date, the report estimates that advertisers will lose $6.3bn to bots next year. These bots siphon money away from brands by setting up fake websites or delivering fake audiences to websites that make use of third-party traffic.
“We have long suspected and have long known there was fraud in our industry,” said Bob Liodice, the president and chief executive of the ANA. “We didn’t know the exact amount or the reasons why it was happening.”
The study included major brands such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Ford Motor Co, Verizon Communications and Pfizer .
White Ops monitored 181 online advertising campaigns by the brands from August to October to determine fraud activity. In one instance, White Ops found that 98% of video ads at a premium lifestyle site were viewed by bots. The report does not name the websites where the fraud was found.
“The ad industry was treating the bots as a faceless swarm,” said the report. “What no one was anticipating is that the bots are extremely effective of looking like a high value consumer.
“We have been less than fully active largely because we didn’t understand the problem and because we were enamored by the success of digital to the marketing industry,” it added. “We want to ensure that everyone has accountability.”
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