A Buck is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Twenty percent of every digital ad dollar is wasted, according to a new study by The & Partnership.

Last year, $12.48 billion of the $66 billion marketers shelled out for digital ads flowed into the hands of crooks committing botnet and adware fraud.

Botnet fraud occurs when an ad is presented, but never viewed by a human; adware fraud, when it's never even presented.

The money wasted exceeds the cumulative digital advertising revenue of all 80 members of Digital Content Next, a trade association whose members include AP, NBC, NPR, PBS, Turner and other publishers.

Fraud will worsen this year. The report predicts $16.40 billion will be lost to it in 2017 (20% of the $82 billion marketers will pay for digital ads).