Digital ad fraud is still a major problem in the programmatic ecosystem, with advertiser losses estimated in the billions of dollars annually. This report explores how advertisers, publishers and partners are protecting themselves.

Research firms and vendors have varying methodologies and definitions for ad fraud, which creates divergent forecasts. Estimates of recent annual losses to digital ad fraud range from $6.5 billion to $19 billion. Some of the most definitive statistics come from anti-fraud vendor White Ops and advertising trade group the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

The intermediation of programmatic transactions opened up a number of opportunities for fraud and data leakage in display advertising. Christiana Cacciapuoti, executive director at industry consortium AdLedger, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss the latest tests of the CryptoRTB protocol, how it will help advertisers avoid fraud, and what advertisers need to understand about cryptography in programmatic transactions.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discuss Google's (and YouTube's) latest earnings. They then talk about how much of a concern ad fraud is within connected TV advertising, the implications of the California Privacy Rights Act, and how people interpret emotionally infused ads.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin analyzes a new study on ad fraud that contradicts other data on this topic and suggests the problem may be bigger than previously estimated.

Connected TV ad spending is increasing significantly, but it still faces issues when it comes to the fragmentation of inventory, lack of standardized measurements, frequency capping and ad fraud. In our newest report on US digital video, we looked at connected TV’s limitations and what leaders in the industry think.

About one-third of its 50 respondents said their digital group handles CTV buying, and 23% said CTV buying was controlled by their TV group. Just one-quarter said their TV and digital groups had merged. Another 23% said their TV and digital groups collaborate when planning CTV campaigns.

Advertiser investment in connected TV (CTV) is ramping up quickly as more inventory becomes available, with YouTube, Hulu and Roku dominating the landscape. We estimate CTV ad spending in the US will reach $10.81 billion by 2021, up from close to $7 billion in 2019. But still, challenges remain, including fragmented inventory, ad fraud and frequency capping.

In this year’s Key Digital Trends report, we identify what changes are coming to the digital media and technology landscape in 2020 and why they matter to marketers.

“TV gets critiqued because it’s not data-driven, it’s not user-level, and it’s not precision advertising,” said Mario Schiappacasse, head of programmatic media at digital partner Jellyfish. “But in 12 months, we may be in a world where we’re all moving away from precision advertising.

The full data set is contained in the “Digital Ad Pricing StatPack” Excel file, which includes the following:. CPMs for display, video and native ad types. vCPMs for select display ad types. CPCs for select display ad types. CPCV for select video and native ad types. Read Next. Sources. AdColony. Aki Technologies. Amobee. Consumer Acquisition. CrossInstall. Flashtalking. Goodway Group. Index Exchange.

Cheq found ad fraud in mobile games has increased to 40% to 50%. “The more complex the supply chain of buying the ad, the more openings there are for fraudsters to exploit,” Avital said. “The in-game advertising business has become very complex, with a lot of exchanges, networks and demand- and supply-side platforms.

Around 84% of publishers estimate that more than one of every 10 dollars invested by digital ad buyers goes into the pockets of middlemen and ad tech vendors, according to a November 2018 Digiday survey. Nearly four in 10 publishers estimated 25% or more went to such intermediaries.