Sign up for our daily briefing

Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Catch up on the day's biggest business stories

Subscribe to Axios Closer for insights into the day’s business news and trends and why they matter

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Stay on top of the latest market trends

Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Sports news worthy of your time

Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Tech news worthy of your time

Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Get the inside stories

Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Axios on your phone

Get breaking news and scoops on the go with the Axios app.

Download for free.

Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday

Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?

Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?

Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?

Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?

Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?

Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Sign up for Axios NW Arkansas

Stay up-to-date on the most important and interesting stories affecting NW Arkansas, authored by local reporters

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!

Rebecca Zisser / Axios

A new study estimates that $12.48 billion of ad spending in 2016 was fraud, or was the result in invalid traffic, which is double the earlier $7.2 billion industry estimate. This means that almost 20% of the $66 billion spent last year on digital ads globally may have been wasted on ads that were mostly either

  • Botnet fraud: never actually viewed by humans
  • Adware fraud: not properly loaded for a person to accurately view them

Why this matters: The amount of money lost to digital ad fraud is greater than the total digital advertising revenue for all of the 80 premium publishers of Digital Content Next, a trade group which includes the AP, NBC, NPR, PBS, Turner and many more, according to Jason Kint, the group's president.

  • Digital was supposed to solve this problem: Dan Jaffe, EVP of the Association of National Advertisers, tells Axios: "We thought in the digital age we'd know exactly where our spending went, but because digital and mobile are growing faster than any other industry, the regulatory and foundational steps that you see in more mature media — like good metrics reporting — didn't necessarily happen immediately. Now we're making major efforts to catch up."
  • Increased automation magnifies the issue: The report finds that 29% of programmatic ads (ads sold through an automated process) resulted in invalid traffic, as opposed to 12% of ads sold directly by humans. As the industry becomes more automated, comScore foresees the problem becoming worse "due to the lack of transparency in the ecosystem." eMarketer predicts that by 2018, over 80% of digital display ads will be sold programmatically, up 37% from 2014.

What's next? The report suggests that the amount of fraudulent ad spend will rise to $16.4 billion of the estimated $82 billion digital ad dollars spent globally this year. Experts suggest that the solution relies on regulation of the economic incentives that spur fraud, especially when it comes to bots. "The solution to ad fraud, like may other issues, is economic rather than technical," Kint says. "Advertisers, and importantly their agencies, need to know where their advertising and their investments are actually going."

The study was published by The&Partnership, a holding group under the umbrella of WPP, one of the world's largest ad agencies, m/six, an agency within the Group M ad agency conglomerate and a third-party ad audit vendor called Adloox.

Go deeper

Pelosi urges White House to reinstate expired eviction moratorium

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging President Biden and his administration to renew and extend the eviction moratorium after the House failed to secure enough votes to pass legislation to prevent its lapse.

Why it matters: Millions of tenants across the country face the threat of eviction after the moratorium expired this weekend.

Cuomo urges private businesses to move to "vaccine-only admission"

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on Monday called for private businesses to incentivize getting vaccinated against the coronavirus by instituting "vaccine-only admission."

Why it matters: The Delta variant is driving up COVID-19 cases around the country to surge, but deaths and hospitalizations are overwhelmingly occurring in unvaccinated people.

Crypto industry faces $30 billion tax threat from infrastructure bill

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

It's finally "Infrastructure Week" and Congress is hammering out the details of a $1 trillion bill inching closer to the finish line. But one area that could face unpleasant consequences from the bill is cryptocurrencies.

Why it matters: Nearly $30 billion in taxes from cryptocurrency transactions, as part of the bill's "pay-fors," is at stake.

You’ve caught up. Now what?

Sign up for Mike Allen’s daily Axios AM and PM newsletters to get smarter, faster on the news that matters.

Please enter a valid email.

Please enter a valid email.

Subscription failed
Thank you for subscribing!