What's Being Done to Rein In $7 Billion in Ad Fraud?

There's plenty of blame to go around for how digital ad fraud became a monster. Here, some ways to beat it back.

- Michael Bürgi

Long a dirty little secret of the digital media business, the topic of ad fraud has been thrust front and center in discussions among agency executives, advertisers and publishers over the last three years. Bot traffic, or nonhuman digital traffic, is at its highest ever, and recent projections from the Association of National Advertisers have more than $7 billion in advertising investment wasted. A variety of organizations and companies are putting serious efforts into stanching the losses, and the ANA will make the topic a centerpiece of its annual Masters of Media Conference next month in Hollywood, Fla. Serving on a panel discussion on March 3 will be Amy Bartle, director of media and digital marketing, La Quinta Inns & Suites; Ron Amram, vp of media, Heineken USA; and Michael Tiffany, co-founder and CEO of cyber security firm White Ops, who will present findings of a study on ad fraud. The following is an edited Q&A with the panelists, along with insights from Bill Duggan, group evp of the ANA. 

Adweek: What part of the digital ecosystem suffers the worst fraud issues, and why?

Amram: This has evolved over time, but right now the most concerning fraud is in the digital video space, specifically regarding high-end content. It’s a medium with the highest CPM, or cost, and the greatest expected impact. Everyone assumed that fraud was more prevalent in the dark underbelly of digital and not in higher-end video content.

Bartle: Whichever one provides the highest return and lowest scrutiny. That may sound trite, but the reality is that ad fraud is driven by extremely smart individuals who are quick to see opportunity in an unguarded space.