How Much Money Is Lost to Programmatic Ad Fraud Each Year?

With the rise of programmatic advertising, ad fraud has grown into a major problem for the industry. It’s now estimated that advertisers will lose $100 billion dollars to all types of ad fraud just this year alone.
Clearly, ad fraud is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by businesses. In this article, we will cover some facts about the programmatic side of ad fraud in 2022, as well as steps that can be taken to help you mitigate it.

The Cost of Programmatic Ad Fraud Globally

As the ad spend of companies goes higher, so do the incidences of programmatic ad fraud. More money in the mix means fraudsters are increasingly incentivized to take advantage of the automated systems that make it all work.

Although new ways have emerged to fight this fraud, there are still many roadblocks to preventing it from growing. Ad networks aren’t often willing to give up their data, making it tough to know how bad the issue is. And as tech complexity increases, so do the tactics used by fraudsters, making detection of their actions tougher with time.

Programmatic Ad Fraud Is On The Rise

According to eMarketer programmatic ad spend is projected to hit $123 billion in 2022. That’s 90% of all digital display ad dollars. All this adds up to a huge magnet for bad actors who wield their technical skills to steal from ad budgets. In fact, close to 20 percent of all programmatically served ads in the United States were fraudulent in 2019.

If the trends remain constant, that places the cost of programmatic ad fraud in the range of $50 billion for 2022. Of course, these numbers are largely difficult to accurately calculate, and some research firms claim higher figures than others. But one thing is for certain—there are billions and billions of dollars being lost by advertisers using programmatic ads each year, and the problem isn’t going away.

Why Is The Problem Getting Worse?

Part of the problem is a lack of sharing data between the tech companies and vendors who serve up the ads they sell space for. It’s already tough enough for third parties to analyze the validity of display ad impressions, so less data only makes matters worse.

Another hurdle to solving the issue is that fraudsters are always developing increasingly intricate strategies and tech tools to scam programmatic ad networks.

Taking a Proactive Approach to Minimize Ad Fraud

Companies are being cheated out of billions of dollars each year due to programmatic ad fraud. Being proactive is critical in a business environment where fraudsters are constantly trying to steal from you. This is why putting a suite of strategies in place to mitigate ad fraud is the smartest move.

For example, only signing on with reputable ad networks is a core principle of protection. And so is integrating an ad fraud solution like Anura, which continually scans your programmatic campaigns for the slightest signs for fraud. There’s really no other way to see programmatic ad fraud happening in real time, making this type of solution absolutely essential.

Implement a Reliable Ad Fraud Solution Today

When you need to protect your ad budget from programmatic ad fraud, Anura is here to help. Our solution constantly analyzes your programmatic ads 24/7 to detect and prevent ad fraud.

With Anura, you’ll get easy to understand insights about your programmatic ad campaigns. Learn how you can save thousands or even millions monthly on programmatic ad fraud with a free trial today.