Marketers and techies have been suspicious for a while about how many of video ad views are from people. According to a study almost a quarter of views are from robots. Computers operated remotely by hackers have been costing the advertising industry through this. It’s estimated their absent views will cost advertisers $6.3 billion next year.
The fake views also account for 11% of other display ads. They often take place in the night when the owners of the hijacked computers are fast asleep.
This all means that retailers and businesses are paying for web advertisements which aren’t even shown to real humans. Bob Liodice, president and chief executive officer of the New York based association says they are being robbed. “This isn’t about system inefficiencies or process sloppiness. This is about criminal activity.”
This will likely undermine confidence in an otherwise optimistic and fast growing industry. The NZ Herald said, “Online display advertising accounted for an estimated 10 per cent of ad spending in the US last year, a figure that is projected to nearly double, to 19 per cent, in 2018, according to EMarketer Inc.”