The prevalence of brands inadvertently advertising their wares within unsavoury or offensive digital content is on the rise around the world, says ad verification firm DoubleVerify. 

The DoubleVerify Global Insights report tracked display and video ad impressions in the year to April, across 75 countries and more than 1000 brands. Once again, it showed the bad guys are profiting greatly from a digital world that cannot combat the flood of fraud, which often leads to brands finding their ads running in some of the nastiest places on the web, and increasingly on mobile apps. 

The new frontiers for ad fraud, as expected, are the rising channels of mobile apps and Connected TV. Fraudsters target premium inventory and emerging channels because brands and tech players are yet to build effective solutions to stop them. DoubleVerify reported a 120% increase globally in fraudulent CTV and mobile apps, and a whopping 194% increase in the mobile app brand safety incident rate. 

In the past few weeks, Juniper has reported the ad fraud market is set to hit US$42 billion this year while adtech provider Cheq reported the number at US$23 billion, also noting that with marketers pouring billions into digital ads, up to 30% of ads are affected by fraud, affecting 21 trillion online ads each year.

Whatever the true number, the wastage and losses on ad fraud are phenomenal in a global US$320 billion digital ads market. Many advertisers are now avoiding news and current affairs sites, premium destinations, because they do not want their brand to be associated with fake news, politics, or inflammatory rhetoric. 

The DoubleVerify report said brand safety incidents were highest in the entertainment category, followed closely by travel – primarily because these brands have bursts of high volume, and run many custom and takeover buys without extended time to optimise campaigns. Travel clients are also especially sensitive to natural and manmade disaster news, further increasing the likelihood of avoidance. Fraud was highest in Media, Travel, Finance, Pharma and Auto industry verticals. 

While online fraud may steal money directly from brands, marketers appear to be more concerned with being outed by consumers and watchdogs for running their ads on sites that promote hate speech, or other offensive content. 

“Brand safety remains top-of-mind for advertisers,” said DoubleVerify. “Unlike fraud and viewability, which impact a brand’s chequebook, brand safety is corrosive to a brand’s equity – with a lasting impact on consumer loyalty and likelihood to transact.” 

Of equal concern, DoubleVerify said its key takeout into next year was that the Internet is under siege as a sustainable marketing platform. 

“Increasing regulation, consumer concerns around personal data usage, and brand misalignment with inflammatory and fake news threaten its long-term viability as a marketing platform. The industry must come together to address these material issues – ensuring consumer trust, and giving advertisers clarity and confidence in their digital investment,” said the report.

The company also noted that in a post-GDPR world, where targeting audiences based on user data is becoming problematic for global brands, contextual targeting is likely to become more widespread. 

See the report here.