Fraudlogix, an ad verification company, published new data on Wednesday showing an increase in fraudulent ad traffic in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and the holiday shopping season – a time of year when online ad spending is at it highest.
Fraudlogix analyzed three months of global programmatic ad traffic and found that the average percent of fraudulent traffic had jumped from 11.5 percent in September and 11.6 percent in October to 14.2 percent in November, a 22 percent increase from the previous month. The data includes all device types. Fraudulent ad traffic is defined as invalid traffic generated by bots, hijacked devices, and/or malware. Fraudlogix regularly monitors data from 640+ million unique users, 1.2 billion unique devices, and 12 million URLs monthly.
According to the IAB’s Annual Ad Revenue Report, online ad spending historically spikes in the fourth quarter as marketers deploy their online holiday advertising campaigns and try to use up annual spending budgets. In 2017 Q4 spending was 20 percent higher than the previous quarter.
“Fraud follows the money, so it’s no coincidence that ad fraud jumps when spending increases,” said Fraudlogix CEO Hagai Shechter. “It’s a busy time of year for marketers but they can’t let their guard down when it comes to ad fraud.”
Along with reporting on the data, Fraudlogix posted four suggestions to marketers on how they can avoid fraudulent traffic during the holiday season: pay close attention to KPIs, avoid abnormally low-priced ad inventory, set realistic campaign goals, and keep an eye on quality, even for trusted sources.
The Fraudlogix post can be found here.
Other research from Fraudlogix can be found here.
# # #
ABOUT FRAUDLOGIX
Fraudlogix is an online advertising fraud detection company founded in 2010 by industry veterans with a deep understanding of the digital ad ecosystem. It specializes in ad fraud solutions for desktop, mobile, in-app and video environments for the programmatic and affiliate spaces. Today, Fraudlogix monitors data from over 640 million unique users, millions of websites and 1.2 billion unique devices monthly. Visit www.fraudlogix.com for more information.