Dive Brief:
- According to Ad Age, research from Integral Ad Science offered digital advertisers some good news: Programmatic ad fraud was down 20.9% in Q4 of 2015 year-over-year, and viewability for the same ads was up 20.7%.
- The news comes at a time when marketers have been told ad fraud might cost them collectively as much as $7.2 billion this year worldwide.
- According to Integral Ad Science’s research, it was the fifth straight quarter that ad fraud decreased for both programmatically bought ads as well as those purchased directly from publishers.
Dive Insight:
What was left unstated in the research was the impact of ad blocking tech on the decline of ad fraud. The single best argument on the user end of digital advertising for adopting ad block software is it’s an excellent first line of defense against fraudulent ads that, more than likely, harbor malware or are trying to attempt some measure of cybercrime.
The increase in viewability and the drop in programmatic ad fraud should be welcome news for the online ad industry, which has seen a tense couple of months with the rise of ad blocking and accusations that it has failed to put user experience ahead of profit.
David Hahn, senior vp of product management at Integral Ad Science, told Ad Age, "I think over the past 18 to 24 months there's been an increased awareness that the better the quality of the media bought, the better the advertising typically does."
A better user experience means that messaging is not only reaching the right audience, but that it’s also being heard.