Mobile ad fraud spooking marketers: MMA

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Even as marketers, across the globe, pour billions of dollars into digital advertising, the menace of mobile fraud is playing spoilsport and emerging as the new battleground for embattled marketers. An estimated 22% of the mobile ad spends in India are subject to ad fraud, according to a latest survey by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in India. One out of eight marketers surveyed are unclear about the level of fraud in their mobile ad spend.

“The top two challenges faced by marketers in mobile advertising are mobile ad fraud and brand safety,” says Moneka Khurana, country head of MMA India. Ad fraud, she adds, is likely to rise by 40% this year. Interestingly, misrepresentation fraud—which includes ad stacking, device hijacking and falsify site or ad-specific information—turned out to pose the highest risk, followed by traffic and attribution fraud. Brand campaigns, interestingly, have emerged as the top segment reporting highest ad fraud, according to the survey. 

The menace is assuming alarming proportions globally. According to a research by ThreatMetrix, mobile fraud reached 150 million global attacks during first half of last year, a 24% year-over-year spike. Over 25% of new ecommerce account applications were found to be fraudulent, a staggering 130% jump compared to 2017. Bots are also threatening with their lethal impact. Last year, over 2.6 billion bot attacks were reportedly registered, which makes it a steep 60% increase. Shopping, followed by gaming, finance, travel and social are amongst the most vulnerable categories in mobile ad fraud, revealed another report by Intercepted. The number of fraudulent apps surged by 159% in 2018 from the prior year, according to Mobile Marketer, which cited a report by marketing measurement firm DoubleVerify.

MMA is the world’s leading global non-profit trade mobile marketing association, consisting of over 800-member companies across fifty countries.