The Bot-Bomb Bubble?

Attention CEOs:  It seems bots are bilking billions from you, and no one in the online ad business is willing to tell you about it.  Except for Mike Shields at Adweek.  Last week, Mike wrote about a report from Solve Media that says advertisers may be on track to blow over $9 billion in online advertising because of fraudulent activity.  Solve Media says that in Q2 46% of web activity and 35% of mobile activity appeared suspicious, i.e. not human.  That's up from 43% and 29% respectively from Q1. 

And, if you're a global advertiser, it gets worse.  Solve Media says the while 46% is a damn big number for the US, it's nothing compared to the rest of the world, especially China (92%), Venezuela (80%) and Ukraine (77%). 

Some in the online ad business question Solve Media's motives (discredit the messenger instead of the message) because it developed CAPTCHAs, and that it is only trying to sway website publishers to use its product.  But Solve Media doesn't track bots.  Its CAPTCHAs, used by more than 6500 publishers globally and which tracks 230 million actual, honest-to-God human interactions, can tell who is human and who (or what) is a bot.  If Solve Media was the only one bringing this to light maybe I wouldn't be too concerned.  But it's not.  Other companies have noticed the growing fraud in online advertising. 

I'm shocked that more CEOs are willing to blindly spend truckloads of cash on online advertising without knowing its effectiveness.  I'm shocked that I haven't heard a chorus of CMOs shouting about this. Maybe it will happen once this story goes mainstream.  Or maybe they'll have had their asses fired before then.  I'm also shocked by the silence from online ad agencies.  It could be that they either are too busy swilling the Kool-Aid or they are aware of the issue but won't say anything while the cash keeps rolling in. I think, though, that just like before the Dot-Bomb explosion, they'll maintain the status quo and take the cash.

Old hands like Bob Hoffman, The Ad Contrarian, has been tracking this story and for years has railed about the unquestioned faith agencies and CMOs have in online advertising and the declining state of the ad business.  A lot more leaders have  to stand up and scream about this because it threatens the integrity of the whole industry. 

Still, the drumbeat continues.  We continue to hear from the digital gurus that all things traditional are Dead, all the rules have changed, and new paradigm has arrived.  The truths of the past are tenets from an ancient, outdated religion to be dismissed by today's advertising atheists.  Yeah, sure, but there's one thing about atheists and it's best summed up in an aphorism misattributed to G. K. Chesterton: "When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't believe in nothing.  He believes in anything."  Today's ad leaders and CMOs appear to believe in anything.