>>In June, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), a US industry group, published a blog post that estimated that ad fraud is costing US advertisers $120 billion each year. Hours after it was published, those statements were removed. John Wolfe, the ANA’s director of communications, tells WIRED that the figures were removed because they were out of date, but declines to provide any new figures.
Right, because the up-to-date fraud numbers are higher.
>>But the industry is letting ad dollars flow into the pockets of cybercriminals, he adds, who can then use it to fund other illicit activities. It’s a major problem, he argues. “One that no one talks about, no one writes about, everyone thinks it’s someone else’s problem.”
Exactly, everyone is incentivized to accept the inflated numbers, and disincentivized to look at reality, so the result is unsurprising.
>>Fou believes the industry was corrupted around a decade ago, when a series of opaque middlemen entered the scene. “Prior to that, advertisers would buy ads from publishers like The New York Times,”
It's said in software that 'Everything can be solved by another layer of indirection'. Everything evidently includes inserting a fraud layer.
Solution? De-scaling and going back to advertising directly with specific platforms instead of ad "networks". What about paying for conversion instead of clicks? That concept seems to have completely disappeared. Anyone inside know why or what could be done to get back to that?
As a small biz owner developing physical products, I'd be interested in advertising, but I sure don't want to blow $$thousands out the door in hours for a mere illusion...
Right, because the up-to-date fraud numbers are higher.
>>But the industry is letting ad dollars flow into the pockets of cybercriminals, he adds, who can then use it to fund other illicit activities. It’s a major problem, he argues. “One that no one talks about, no one writes about, everyone thinks it’s someone else’s problem.”
Exactly, everyone is incentivized to accept the inflated numbers, and disincentivized to look at reality, so the result is unsurprising.
>>Fou believes the industry was corrupted around a decade ago, when a series of opaque middlemen entered the scene. “Prior to that, advertisers would buy ads from publishers like The New York Times,”
It's said in software that 'Everything can be solved by another layer of indirection'. Everything evidently includes inserting a fraud layer.
Solution? De-scaling and going back to advertising directly with specific platforms instead of ad "networks". What about paying for conversion instead of clicks? That concept seems to have completely disappeared. Anyone inside know why or what could be done to get back to that?
As a small biz owner developing physical products, I'd be interested in advertising, but I sure don't want to blow $$thousands out the door in hours for a mere illusion...