Advertising Digital Editors' Picks Featured Marketing News

posted on Jan. 15, 2025 at 10:10 amSep 25, 2025

Digital ad fraud, if unchecked, to drain $312mn GCC ad spend in 2025

posted on Jan. 15, 2025 at 10:10 amSep 25, 2025

Digital ad fraud such as ad stacking, domain spoofing, impression fraud, sophisticated bots and geo-masking techniques, need to be addressed to stop the "the second-largest source of criminal income globally in 2025".

Digital ad fraud, especially in the avatar of invalid traffic (IVT), has become far more than just a ’cause for advertising inefficiency’; it skews campaign data, drains ad budgets and diminishes return on ad spend.

The financial implications are staggering, with studies projecting that ad fraud will cost more than $114 billion in 2025, of which $312 million in ad spend forecasted to be wasted in the GCC in 2025.

The World Federation of Advertisers estimates that, if unaddressed, digital ad fraud could become the second-largest source of criminal income globally in 2025.

Stewart Morrison, Managing Director at independent global marketing contract compliance specialist FirmDecisi

To continue reading this article you need to be registered with Campaign. Registration is free and only takes a minute. Register Now or sign in below if you already have an account.

Tags:Ad fraud ad stacking Chady Azar DAMAC Properties Digital ad fraud Digital Rocket domain spoofing Ebiquity MEA Expo City Dubai Fahad Rai FirmDecisions G2 Comms geo-masking techniques Hitesh Uchil Hussain Fakhruddin impression fraud InsuranceMarket.ae Jad Hindy Omar Zahriyeh Publicis Media sophisticated bots Stewart Morrison Tamer Alphonse Tapper World Federation of Advertisers Zand

the authorAnup Oommen

Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand’s digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he’s a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world’s leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.