Digital ad frauds to touch $68bn this year

New Delhi: Losses owing to digital advertising fraud are set to reach a whopping $68 billion globally this year, rising from $59 billion in 2021, a new report showed on Monday. Top five countries most impacted by advertising fraud -- the US, Japan, China, South Korea and the UK -- together account for 60 per cent of global digital advertising spend losses, says Juniper Research.

"With the US representing such a significant market in terms of advertising spend, campaigns in North America will undoubtedly attract the attention of fraudulent players," said research author Scarlett Woodford.

"This will lead to unprecedented innovation in fraud tactics within the US, with advertisers demonstrating a greater requirement for fraud detection and mitigation services," Woodford added. The US also would alone account for 35 per cent of digital ad fraud losses this year.

"Those advertising in the US will potentially suffer the most in financial loss due to fraudulent activity, with total losses in the US expected to surpass $23 billion in 2022," the findings showed. The US represents the largest market for digital advertising spend, with high levels of Internet penetration and elevated mobile app and browser usage presenting strong opportunities for the display of promotional content.

The researchers urged digital advertisers targeting these five key markets to form strategic partnerships with ad fraud detection and prevention vendors capable of distinguishing between valid and fraudulent advertising traffic that provides no return on ad spend.

"The most successful ad fraud detection tools will harness machine learning algorithms to compare advertising traffic with previously observed, verifiable baseline data," said the report.

Meanwhile, India's digital ad expenditure is expected to grow 10 times over the next decade and will likely account for 70-85 per cent of the total ad market which currently stands at 33 per cent.