Products

EMARKETER delivers leading-edge research to clients in a variety of forms, including full-length reports and data visualizations to equip you with actionable takeaways for better business decisions.
PRO+
New data sets, deeper insights, and flexible data visualizations.
Learn More
Reports
In-depth analysis, benchmarks and shorter spotlights on digital trends.
Learn More
Forecasts
Interactive projections with 10k+ metrics on market trends, & consumer behavior.
Learn More
Charts
Proprietary data and over 3,000 third-party sources about the most important topics.
Learn More
Industry KPIs
Industry benchmarks for the most important KPIs in digital marketing, advertising, retail and ecommerce.
Learn More
Briefings
Client-only email newsletters with analysis and takeaways from the daily news.
Learn More
Analyst Access Program
Exclusive time with the thought leaders who craft our research.
Learn More

About EMARKETER

Our goal is to unlock digital opportunities for our clients with the world’s most trusted forecasts, analysis, and benchmarks. Spanning five core coverage areas and dozens of industries, our research on digital transformation is exhaustive.
Our Story
Learn more about our mission and how EMARKETER came to be.
Learn More
Methodology
Rigorous proprietary data vetting strips biases and produces superior insights.
Learn More
Our People
Take a look into our corporate culture and view our open roles.
Join the Team
Contact Us
Speak to a member of our team to learn more about EMARKETER.
Contact Us
Newsroom
See our latest press releases, news articles or download our press kit.
Learn More
Advertising & Sponsorship Opportunities
Reach an engaged audience of decision-makers.
Learn More
Events
Browse our upcoming and past events, recent podcasts, and other featured resources.
Learn More
Podcasts
Tune in to EMARKETER's daily, weekly, and monthly podcasts.
Learn More

Ad Fraud Still Plagues Digital Media’s Supply Chain

Last month, Guardian US and programmatic partner MightyHive teamed up with Google to test how much ad inventory being sold on the open marketplace was not legit.

The team purchased ad inventory—ostensibly from Guardian US—through demand-side platform (DSP) buying via the open marketplace. A similar buy was made specifying verification from ads.txt, a program adopted by publishers to signal that their inventory is what it says it is.

What they found was clear evidence that unauthorized players were pretending to sell Guardian inventory and diverting the revenue to themselves. Of the video ad inventory purchased without validation, 72% was fraudulent.

The good news was that the buy using ads.txt verification seemed to have worked, with the Guardian seeing all the revenue from that campaign.

eMarketer’s latest report, “Cleaning Up the Digital Media Supply Chain: What Will Move the Industry Toward Transparency and Optimization?” examines the current state of the programmatic media supply chain, why advertisers are concerned and what the ecosystem is doing about it.

The top challenge of addressing ad quality issues is tracking down bad actors in the supply chain, according to January 2018 research by ad intelligence firm Ad Lightning. Nearly six in 10 of the US ad operations professionals surveyed called it a significant problem.

Google, Amobee and Quantcast conducted a study last year comparing available inventory from a selection of 16 premium publishers across three DSPs with the publishers’ ads.txt files to determine how much fraudulent inventory was available on exchanges. The researchers found that there were four times more display bid requests than legitimate inventory, and 57 times more video bid requests.

Part of the problem is that the buyers, the marketers, have not pressed for an account of where their ad spend is going. How many consumers would continue to shop at a retailer if they believed there was a one in four chance of not purchasing a counterfeit item? Or how many would eat at a restaurant if there was a 1-in-57 chance of not getting sick afterward? If brands behaved more like consumers, it is hard to imagine the fraud problem would be as large as it is. If media buyers don’t expect and pay for transparency from their suppliers, they won’t get it.

“There's a lot of things that can be eliminated from a fraud or invalid traffic perspective if the buy side would simply require it,” according to Walter Knapp, CEO of supply-side platform (SSP) Sovrn. “I've never totally understood why it took so long for someone on the buy side to put their foot down,” he said, referencing a speech by Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard to the Association of National Advertisers, in which he called the digital supply chain, “murky at best.” Knapp applauded the sentiment, if not the timing. “It benefits publishers that deserve it when buyers only buy quality.”

In the latest episode of "Behind the Numbers," eMarketer analysts Nicole Perrin and Lauren Fisher discuss what the digital supply chain looks like.

Not sure if your company subscribes? Find out more.