How Real Attention Stops Ad Fraud in Its Tracks

Imagine you’re sitting at a nice table in your favorite restaurant. You order a meal—pricy but worth it—and get ready to dig in. The server brings you your dinner…and it’s missing an entire side dish.

“Excuse me,” you might say. “Where is the rest of my food?”

“Ah! Well, a robot took it.”

You would be understandably flustered at this response. So, you press on: “But I want all the food I paid for.”

“Of course!” the server would reply. “I can bring 25% of your side dish back. But I have to take a large bite out of your entree.”

They eat a big forkful, return to the kitchen, and bring back 1/4th of your side dish.

That’s essentially what happens with ad fraud. Advertisers pay for impressions and engagement, but a portion of that spend disappears before it ever reaches a real person.

Would you keep returning to a restaurant that delivered only part of what you ordered? Probably not. And yet, as an industry, we’ve learned to accept short plates and call it normal.

Money for Nothing (and the Clicks Aren’t Free)

22%.

That’s the estimated percentage of ad spend lost to fraud in 2023. It’s a number that amounts to $84 billion. By 2028, it’s projected to reach $170 billion. To put that number in perspective, with that much money, Disney could have acquired FOX 2.5 times. Want to buy an island? No problem. With that amount of capital you could buy 1,700 of them, fully decked out with multiple mansions and a dedicated staff.

Like the example above illustrates, we’re paying for 100% of a product (eyeballs on our ads) and getting significantly less than we’re promised. It’s a universal problem that we all have to account for that ultimately taxes not just the bottom line, but bandwidth as well. The value of an invisible ad, after all, is zero. The labor costs of creating that ad are not.

The problem is widespread—but solvable. So, how can we as an industry mitigate it?

Protection…for a Price

Solutions exist, of course. IAS, DoubleVerify, and other tools can help reduce the negative impact of fraud. Of the $84 billion lost referenced above, $23 billion would have been recoverable with fraud mitigation programs.

That’s a start, but $61 billion would still be unaccounted for. Not only that, but fraud protection platforms can cost around 7% of ad spend. In other words, for every dollar lost to ad fraud, you could get back 25 cents…minus a 7% fee.

Ultimately, avoiding losses requires investment. The goal isn’t zero loss—it’s smarter, smaller loss and higher-quality outcomes.

Quality Media = Brand Safe Content + Genuine Human Interaction

To truly combat fraud, we need to look towards the attention economy. Actually getting human eyeballs on real brand stories. The way to achieve this is twofold:

1. Scrutinize ad placements. During a recent panel discussion hosted by Infillion, we heard a story about an ad buy that sounded too good to be true. It was. The inventory ran as a looping demo on the screens of a major electronics retailer. Could these placements feasibly drive top-funnel metrics? Maybe. But given that the average shopper likely isn’t in an ad-receptive mindset at the time of those exposures, they’re not likely to find a foothold. Not only that, but the inability to measure performance for a placement like this makes its success (or lack thereof) completely opaque.

Premium, brand-safe networks are the way to go.

2. Give users a choice. For over 10 years, Infillion has embraced an opt-in model for our interactive ad products. Users volunteer at least 30 seconds of dedicated time in exchange for a lighter ad load. During that focused time (which often far exceeds the minimum 30 second commitment) users click and explore and learn and even play. We have the metrics to prove out what they’re clicking on, when, why, and where. It’s an offer of clarity in an increasingly muddled ad landscape. Not only does this tell a more powerful story, it does so with the direct permission from willing, ad-receptive audience members.

The proxy for fighting fraud is now —and has always been —true, quality attention. Look to servicers whose products are designed around harvesting and respecting that attention. The net result: greater performance, more trustworthy numbers, and genuine protection against the waste of fraudulent ad spend.