Mediatwits #173: Fake Traffic, Bots Hit Online Advertising

Like it or not advertising pays for content. We all know how it should work: publishers produce content that consumers want and advertisers pay for access to aforementioned consumers. But according to a Bloomberg investigation it’s not that simple. Instead what they found were traffic brokers willing to sell traffic spawned by bots and virus-infected computers, and websites that game the system by selling ads that aren’t seen by many humans. It isn’t just small fly-by-night operations where ad fraud is a problem. A study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) found a Chrysler ad on Saveur.tv was only viewed by an actual human 2 percent of the time. Is it really that surprising when you consider the billions of dollars pouring into digital advertising? The problem for advertisers and publishers is that most people don’t like ads and this is just one more reason to block them. Soon after ad blocking was enabled on iPhones it jumped to the top of the App Store. That’s not good for publishers, and some would argue it’s not good for anyone. What can advertisers and publishers do to help combat ad fraud? We’ll ask our guests Ben Elgin, investigative reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek; and Lisa Kerr, senior vice president of market development for Digital Content Next. MediaShift’s Mark Glaser will host, with Jefferson Yen producing.