Digital advertising is a major business, with many billions of dollars invested every year. That cash has since quite a while ago attracted fraudsters (people who are committing ad fraud) to this new advertising area, and beguiling practices cost the advertising business billions yearly.
How big digital ad fraud is as a problem?
Overall estimates of fraud vary widely, but even the most conservative estimates well in the billions annually put the money involved worldwide. Recent estimates range from $6.5bn to as high as $19bn, a range that points to the real impact of measuring fraud.
What are the most vulnerable types of digital advertising that will be affected by fraud?
The first rule of thumb is that fraudsters choose to infiltrate businesses where there is too much money invested. Also, the fraudsters are attracted to new markets and technologies, such as connected TV, where verification firms haven’t yet developed robust detection algorithms and where the ad tech market is relatively immature. Recently, researches indicate that usage of smartphones is increasing and therefore investment of money is increasing to mobile apps and mobile advertising. As a result, digital ad frauds are getting more and more familiar in this sector.
Adjust concluded in its Q1 2018 report that ad fraud rates doubled in comparison to a year earlier. Like AppsFlyer, Adjust found e-commerce to be the most attacked vertically with the rejection of 40 percent of paid installs, followed by games and travel.
How can you protect yourself from Ad Fraud?
Technologies are getting more and more sophisticated so you have to be more careful and updated when it comes to mobile ad fraud prevention. Fraud detection software can help. These software companies have access to the kind of massive data sets that enable anomalies to be recognized by machine learning. But even the smallest advertiser in its own data can pay more attention to patterns. Maintaining updated SDKs is a good policy. It is necessary to remain up-to-date and informed about trends in fraud.
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