Ad fraud is forecast to rise to $100 Billion by 2023, and with circa $230 billion being spent on mobile advertising this year alone I'll let you do the madness of the math.

As more and more web browsers are having to adapt or die in the increasingly draconian world of data privacy, the impact is being felt none more so than in the industry that continues to assume the mantle of 'Emperors New Clothes, which is that of the programmatic ad tech industry. 

If you use Safari then the intrusive ad industry has almost given up on you, which for me is a great thing, what about you?

A technical solution that allowed brands to bid in real time and stretch their message to as broad a number of people as possible is finally having to wake up to the fact it has truly shot itself in the ad tech foot.

MadHive, an advanced TV advertising company, estimates 20% of streaming video ad requests are fraudulent, up from an estimate of 18% it made in March 2019. 

Using that percentage figure and other industry estimates for over-the-top (OTT) ad-spending, AdLedger, a nonprofit consortium working on blockchain standards for online advertising, predicts marketers will waste $1.4 billion on fraudulent OTT ads in 2019.

I write a lot about the intrusive advertising industry and the associated ad fraud. It's been spiraling out of control for some years now and with forecast for it to be circa $100 Billion by 2023 is the industry really trying to sort some of the issues out themselves.

Today we have a plethora of streaming services (OTT) for consumers to choose from, these range from global players like Amazon Prime, Netflix and more recently Disney. 

Then there's the numerous regional treaming services all vying for our attention with all kinds of content, so it's no surprise that the next wave of ad fraud growth is predicted to come as a result of these OTT platforms.

There are over 7.5K Ad Tech Vendors sat in that supply chain all of whom have a vested interest in perpetuating the myth that digital programmatic advertising is the silver bullet you need to reach your intended victims - pun intended.

The fact you can deliver shit at a million miles an hour means that what started out as a shit intrusive advert, just got the same shit intrusive ad there faster.

Fraud should be a major focus, particularly as circa 50% - 75% of each dollar spent is the current figure estimated that's being removed from so called legitimate campaigns and going into fraud bots wallets.

But what about all the other digital supply chain plates you have to keep spinning?

The one nice thing about supply chain inefficiencies is they leave a breadcrumb trail.

The most common clue that something fishy is going on with your advertising is data discrepancies. 

It could be discrepancies between demand-side and supply-side systems, or between individual reports from different technology partners. It could simply be the result of different tracking methodologies (which can cause problems alone), or it could be signalling something more.

And how about this for the continued madness associated with the ad tech industry;

"Interestingly, despite the frustration, the industry doesn’t typically treat discrepancies as a serious threat. In fact, we tend to view them as the cost of doing business. Even Google, the leading ad seller by a projected USD$35.2bn (£28.2bn), suggests that a 20% discrepancy rate is not only common, but should be expected".

When did we become so complacent with wasting money? 

Maybe it's time to reset the thinking, every bit of evidence is showing us that the consumer is pissed off with your digital intrusions, the scale of waste and fraud is utter madness.

There are alternatives - feel free to ask the author of this blog what they are.