Businessweek Investigation Sheds Light On Giant Market For Fake Web Traffic

Just ahead of Advertising Week in New York, Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover story takes a first-hand look at the market for fake digital traffic across the Web.

It’s a juicy story worth reading, with details about why the advertiser’s dream of being able to buy highly relevant traffic at scale on the Web hasn’t necessarily panned out the way most hoped.

In one recounting, a veteran brand marketer shares the reaction to hearing that digital’s return on investment for a 2013 Heineken USA campaign was just 2 to 1 compared to at least 6 to 1 for TV:

“The room basically stopped,” Amram recalls. The team was concerned about their jobs; someone asked, “Can they do that? Is it legal?” But mostly it was disbelief and outrage. “It was like we’d been throwing our money to the mob,” Amram says. “As an advertiser we were paying for eyeballs and thought that we were buying views. But in the digital world, you’re just paying for the ad to be served, and there’s no guarantee who will see it, or whether a human will see it at all.

With the rise of ad blockers and ongoing news stories about ad fraud, the industry is facing a heightening crisis of confidence. It will be the topic of many conversations next week. The Bloomberg Businessweek story is online now and hits newsstands Friday.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media’s paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)