• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, Yesterday

One of the saddest realizations in writing this column is how many times I have had to cover ad fraud. I have talked about it pretty much since I started writing for MediaPost in late 2013. Sadly, your business is still being systematically robbed every single day. The latest Integral Ad Science  Media Quality Report  is just the most current reminder all is not well in digital ad land.

In 2023 alone, advertisers globally lost $84 billion to ad fraud, a figure projected to grow to $172 billion by 2028.There are other estimates that predict losses hitting $150 billion in 2025.

This is a significant drain on marketers’ potential return on ad investment. The Ad Fraud Industrial Complex defunds legitimate media platforms and supports illegal and sometimes downright criminal content.

It also undermines trust across the digital advertising landscape, not just for advertisers but also for consumers. On top of all that, ad fraud also skews your analytics, leading to flawed marketing decisions, and can severely damage your brand's reputation if your ads appear on inappropriate or fraudulent sites. The constant evolution of fraudulent advertising, particularly with the rise of AI as a new superpower, will only exacerbate the ongoing arms race.

Many advertisers do something about it -- but given the sheer size of ad fraud, it’s clear they’re not doing enough. Let me share three actions that I think are “price of entry” to ensure your digital ad dollars are at least somewhat safe.

First, let’s look at the most common forms of ad fraud:

Sophisticated bots & AI-generated traffic: These are engineered to bypass basic detection by closely imitating genuine user interactions.

Domain spoofing & misrepresentation: Fraudsters create fake websites that appear as legitimate, premium publishers, particularly within programmatic advertising. This means you might pay for a prime ad spot, but end up on a spoofed website.

Mobile and connected TV (CTV) fraud: This involves advanced spoofing (faking app installs, clicks, and in-app events) as well as fake apps and artificially inflated impression counts

And here are my three suggestions to at least make a dent in your vulnerability:

Be ruthlessly selective with partners & platforms (demand transparency!) Choose your ad networks, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and publishers with extreme care. Not all prioritize transparency. If an offer seems too good or too cheap to be true, it almost certainly is. Prioritize working with partners who adhere to industry standards.

Use foundational technical defenses (the non-negotiables). Implement and regularly update ads.txt for websites and app-ads.txt for mobile apps. These simple files declare who is authorized to sell your ad inventory, making it much harder for fraudsters to spoof your domains or apps. Setting up allow lists (approved sites/apps for your ads) and block lists (sites/apps to avoid) are often free and straightforward ways to exert more control.

Monitoring is a day job (trust, but verify). Regularly scrutinize your campaign analytics -- this is your first line of defense. I would argue that this should be someone’s day job. Campaigns that do not include fraud mitigation strategies experience fraud rates 15 times higher than campaigns using anti-fraud technologies.

The impact of simple practices like selective partnering, allow/block lists and diligent monitoring are effective defenses that are relatively low-cost. They will not eliminate ad fraud altogether. But neglecting these basics makes you an easy target.