This week's review of ad fraud and quality in the digital advertising space.
A new mobile app ad fraud scheme, Hydra, is estimated to have cost advertisers over $130 million, reported Business Insider. "In a nutshell, Hydra creates fake app traffic, defrauding marketers whose ads never get seen by actual humans," wrote Business Insider.
"The US will remain the largest market worldwide for total and digital advertising for the foreseeable future," wrote eMarketer regarding its ad spending outlook for the world's leading nations. The U.S. will spend $226 billion in total ad spend this year, while China will be second with $105 billion spent.
"Nearly two quarters into the U.S. economic recession, advertising appears to be outpacing the U.S. economy, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and Standard Media Index (SMI)," reported MediaPost. The estimated real GDP dropped 32.9% in Q2, while the U.S. ad economy dropped 27.4% in the same time period, per MediaPost.
"Being one of the most crucial innovations since 2017 that has allowed OTT video to become a viable industry, SSAI, at the same time, is fraught with the risk of ad fraud," wrote The View Points' Daniel Elad in an op-ed on TV Technology. "Similar to a double-edge sword, SSAI can both power up CTV and OTT publishers with a new and more profitable way of ad serving, and at the same time, leave space for fraudulent activities," the op-ed added.