Mobile display ads attract the highest rate of fraud

An overview of global fraud rates by format and buy type, H2 2017.

On average, 8.5% of impressions on non-optimised ads across all formats and buy types were fraudulent in H2 2017, according to data from Integral Ad Science. The rate dips to 8.3% for programmatically purchased ads, but rises to 9.2% for publisher direct.

For most formats, the rate of fraudulent impressions is actually greater when the ad is bought directly from the publisher. This is most true for mobile (web) video ads, where 11.5% of impressions were fraudulent versus just 4.1% for programmatic. Fraud rates for desktop ads are largely similar by buy type, tilting slightly against publishers.

Ancillary data...

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