Android "Watch" advertising fraud brings 6 billion dollars to advertisers

One of the largest studies on the crime of digital advertising so far shows that next year, the use of robots to "watch" advertising fraud will bring advertisers 6 billion of dollars in losses.

The study was carried out by the National Advertising Association of the United States (Association of Nation Advertisers, Ana) and the advertising fraud detective, White ops. Ana's members spend more than 250 billion dollars a year on marketing.

The American Guild found that one-fourth of online video ads were "watched" by robots rather than real people. The robot here refers to an automated computer program that is manipulated remotely by fraudsters.

The study analyzed 5.5 billion ad launches and found that one out of every 10 display ads was viewed by robots rather than real people.

The survey included brands such as Ford, Pfizer (Pfizer) and Nestle (Nestlé). The survey draws the clearest result so far that fraud is rife in the fast-growing online advertising market.

To deceive advertisers, fraudsters designed software that mimics the human manipulation of mobile cursors and mouse clicks, leaving the impression that someone was visiting the site.

After the software is installed on its own server or hijacked computer, fraudsters can manipulate the robots to access specific websites. This allows them to profit by selling ads on their websites or by directing false traffic to affiliates ' websites.

"Robots behave like sports enthusiasts, 6-digit people, people who want to buy a car, or grandparents looking for holiday gifts," the report said. ”

In the report, White Ops and Ana collaborated with 36 member agencies of the association to analyze the flow of online advertising activities between August 1 and September 30 this year.

The researchers implanted special software into advertisers ' advertising units, using exclusive analytics and synthesizing third-party data to identify robots. In contrast, advertisers rarely take such a detailed approach to analyzing the data of their online advertising campaigns in such detail.

After extending the proportion of robots observed in the study to display ads and video ads around the world, ANA estimates that global advertisers have lost about 6.3 billion dollars to robots in 2015. Currently, the global spending on display advertising is estimated at $40 billion trillion, and spending on video advertising is estimated at $8.3 billion.