Online Ad Fraud Exposed: Advertisers Losing $6.3 Billion To $10 Billion Per Year

12/9/2014  Kelly Jackson Higgins
 
A new study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the security firm White Ops tracked online ad traffic patterns for 36 major companies and discovered epic levels of abuse.
 Online advertising fraud is thriving right under the noses of website operators and corporate advertisers and on some of the largest legitimate websites, but until now there hasn't been much data on just how pervasive the problem really has become: The current rate of ad fraud translates into $6.3 billion of losses to advertisers worldwide in 2015 after losses of more than $5 billion this year.
That is just one of the eye-popping conclusions from a new study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the security firm White Ops. From Aug. 1 to Oct. 1, White Ops researchers studied and analyzed the digital advertising traffic of a who's who of 36 US major corporations from various industries -- all ANA members -- including Ford, Honda, General Mills, Lilly, MasterCard, Merk, MillerCoors, Home Depot, Verizon, Walmart, and Wendy's.
 
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