Despite a dramatic increase in mobile fraud and other attacks by criminals during the pandemic, the study found a continued very low invalid traffic (IVT) rate of just 0.69% across TAG Certified Channels in Europe, a non-material change from the 0.53% IVT rate measured in 2019 and 2020. TAG Certified Channels are channels in which multiple entities involved in each ad transaction – such as the media agency, buy-side platform, sell-side platform, and publisher – have achieved the TAG Certified Against Fraud Seal.

“Throughout history, criminals have tried to profit from times of crisis, and the supply chain dislocation prompted by the global pandemic has unleashed a surge of ad fraud attacks on digital advertising,” said Jules Kendrick, MD, UK & Europe for TAG. “Despite that increase in attacks, this study showed that ad fraud rates remained very low in the European channels where companies have required their partners to set the same high standards they had adopted against fraud. In short, a wall is only as strong as its weakest brick, and companies should make sure all of their partners’ standards are rock-solid.”

Full report

To download the full European Fraud Benchmark report, click here

Press release

To read the full Press Release, click here

Videos

In case you missed our deep-dive session about the report at the European Brand Safety Summit, here are the highlights!