Fraud, Scammers, Technology Snafus Make Advertisers Pay Buying display ads online seems like it should be a fairly straightforward proposition; you design your ad, submit to an ad network, and pay up based on how many consumers you want to display to.
But, it isn't always so simple to know you're actually getting all the ad impression you pay for.
The old adage in advertising, "Half the money is wasted, but no one knows which half," turns out to be true for the digital world as it ever was for traditional media.
An astounding 54% of online display ads shown in "thousands"
of campaigns measured by comScore Inc. between May of 2012 and February of this
year weren't seen by anyone, according to a study completed last month.
Don't confuse "weren't seen" with "ignored." These
ads simply weren't seen, the result of technical glitches, user habits and
fraud.
The finding implies that billions of marketing dollars are being poured
down a digital drain. Last year, $14 billion was spent on online display
advertising, estimates eMarketer, 40% of all online ad spending.
Advertisers can blame both technical snafus and more nefarious factors
for ads going nowhere. Technical issues include ads being displayed on part of
a browser not open on a computer screen—such as when an ad appears at the
bottom of the screen and surfers don't scroll down. Another problem: Some ads
load so slowly that the Web surfer switches off before the ad comes up, says
comScore.
And then there is fraud. A significant number of display-ad
"impressions" often paid for by marketers are based on fake traffic.
Malicious software makes a website think a person is actually on a page and ads
are served up to that fake visitor. In other scams, ads show up on several Web
pages but they are hidden behind a window on a website that is the size of a
pencil point, according to comScore.
Sources:
1. Nick Saint, “How Websites Scam Advertisers Into Paying For
Invisible Ads,” Business Insider, Sep. 7, 2010
2.
Suzanne Vranica, “Web Display Ads Often Not Visible,” Wallstreet Journal, June 11, 2013
