Advertisers plan to increase mobile ad spend in 2018 despite ad fraud concerns [Study]

A new survey suggests that marketers will continue to increase ad spend on mobile despite the expectation that a fairly significant percentage of that spend will go to fraud.

Appsflyer commissioned the Forrester survey (registration required) of 250 marketers who spend a minimum of $1 million per month on digital advertising. The results showed that 69 percent of respondents believe that at least 20 percent of their in-app mobile ad spend is subject to fraud.

Many respondents (43 percent) also believe fraud has risen in the past year. Yet 70 percent of the marketers said they are increasing their in-app mobile ad budgets over the next 12 months. That’s not to say fraud isn’t a concern: 92 percent of advertisers said combating mobile fraud is a high or critical priority in the future. Still, just 19 percent of those surveyed use fraud-prevention systems.

Other concerns include lack of transparency around the data that is used in third-party audiences, as well as a lack of inventory transparency. One-third of survey respondents said not having clear views of the content and the context in which ads appear impacts campaign performance and optimization.