Throughout the course of the last 18 months, consumers turned to the mobile world to fulfill their daily needs – meal and grocery delivery, entertainment, banking, telehealth, and more. This global, seemingly overnight shift to the digital world provided fraudsters the opportunity to steal more ad spend than ever before, as marketers shifted their marketing dollars almost entirely to digital channels. The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) predicts ad fraud will become the biggest market for organized crime by 2025, worth $50 billion. Mobile marketers must understand the current threats they face in order to prevent and overcome them.
Growing presence of mobile fraud
The mobile industry has experienced a wave of change since the pandemic began, from exponential growth in app installs to iOS 14 updates, and now tackling a massive increase in fraudulent activity. As consumers increasingly install and engage with mobile apps, fraudsters continue to have a wider playing field for stealing ad spend and driving fraudulent conversions.
Fraudulent app installs are one of the most common forms of fraud in the mobile ecosystem. In a recent study by Juniper Research, it was found that app install farms and SDK spoofing are responsible for at least 42% of ad fraud.
In addition to fraudulent app installs, many mobile marketers are experiencing an influx in bot traffic. Bad bots are increasingly involved in fraudulent activity and can be a source of reputational and financial damage for many mobile marketers. Bot traffic can drive fake clicks, mass installs and downloads, and fraudulent form-fills. In the mobile landscape, the industries experiencing the most bot traffic include the finance, e-commerce, travel, and software verticals.
In order to overcome instances of fraud, marketers must be proactive. Perform[cb]’s marketers are protected from fraudulent traffic in real-time with our proprietary anti-fraud software, PerformSHIELDTM. Learn more about how PerformSHIELDuses a proactive approach to fraud protection. This software, in addition to our in-house Compliance team, ensures our marketers’ campaigns are monitored 24/7 and secured from any suspicious activity.
Mobile fraud insights 2021 – free infographic!
In our increasingly innovative digital world, it’s important to be aware of the threats attempting to derail and harm our campaigns. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the rise in mobile traffic and launching attacks across multiple touchpoints. We must remain informed and vigilant if we’re to evade fraudsters and their endless attempts to steal our ad spend.
Learn more about this year’s fraudulent activity and how you can protect your campaigns with Perform[cb]’s Top 10 Mobile Fraud Insights of 2021 infographic. These 10 facts provide insight into the methods mobile fraudsters have employed over the last year and a half to maximize their success; as marketers, we can use these facts to proactively protect our campaigns against mobile fraud.
