Rise Of OTTs And Its Susceptibility To Ad Fraud
Over-the-top (OTT) video advertising is growing by leaps and bound as advertisers funnel more dollars toward it. OTT platforms like Roku and Hulu are experiencing substantial growth in their ad business. However, fraudsters are always lurking around to devour the dollars that flow in. Thus, advertisers need to be wary of ad frauds draining their ad budgets.
As per estimates, US ad spend on OTT grew 40% to $2 billion in 2018. And about 60% of advertisers are set to increase their OTT spend this year. As per eMarketer, this increase in OTT spends is reflected in the overall growth of digital video, which is set to grow 20.5% in 2019 to $33.56 billion in the US.
Though the OTT inventory demand is very strong, the supply of impressions is not so. This has left open an opportunity for fraudsters to trick advertisers into buying fake or non-existent inventory. Emerging, niche inventory formats such as OTT or connected TV, generally give rise to new supply sources which grab the interest not just of advertisers but also of fraudsters. Fraudsters then tend to exploit advertisers’ desperation for more inventory over legitimate ones.
A study by Pixalate found that 19% of global OTT impressions were invalid. This happened due to a combination of factors like ad fraud, ad serving, and measurement errors caused by technical malfunctions.
Many companies are afraid of acknowledging the existence of fraud on their platforms. They fear that this could make them vulnerable. The fact is, they need to open about his problem in order to have concerted efforts to weed it out. Transparency is the best way to address the problem of fraud. Also, working with SSPs having ad fraud detection and protection mechanisms can help advertisers to filter out fake inventories. It is a wise choice for advertisers to prefer to work only with those SSPs which have publishers with ads.txt implemented. Brand-safety is another factor to consider. Ensuring protection on all of these fronts will go a long way in helping advertisers fight OTT frauds.
