There was a time, not that long ago, when many people believed in a kind of digital utopia.
My favorite quote from that period belongs to Arianna Huffington. She said, "Thanks to YouTube -- and blogging and instant fact-checking and viral emails -- it is getting harder and harder to get away with repeating brazen lies without paying a price..."
If only.
Among the fantasies that swirled around us at the time was an idea among marketing people that online advertising would provide us with almost perfect information about the efficacy of our endeavors. We would know exactly who we were reaching, what it cost us, and how the ad performed. This fantasy still lives among some in marketing.
Sadly, the real world has intruded on our fantasy world. In fact, there has never been a time when there has been more confusion, corruption, and misinformation about advertising. There has never been a time when advertisers chased rainbows, believed charlatans, and were taken to the cleaners by con men as they are now. And most of it is centered on online advertising - the very thing that was going to set us free.
Advertisers will spend over $650 billion on online advertising this year. A substantial proportion of this, probably hundreds of billions, will be completely wasted. Not for the usual reason - their advertising stinks - but for another, darker reason. They have been cheated, lied to, and robbed. It has been clear for about a decade that a great deal of online advertising is crooked. It is a black box. Money goes in and nobody knows what comes out.
About 80% of online advertising is bought “programmatically” i.e., by computers. In a majority of cases, the buyers don’t know…
…what they are buying
…who they are buying from
…what they are getting
…what they are paying
They think they know, but they don’t.
Between ad fraud, made for advertising sites (MFAs), hidden middleman fees, unreliable data, unreliable reports, incompetent verification vendors, viewability issues, click fraud, false attribution, crooked games by website publishers, consumer inattention, perverse incentives, and the utter lack of transparency, advertisers are being fucked blind.
Nonetheless, marketers keep pouring in more and more money. There are only two possible explanations for this. Either marketing people are too stupid/irresponsible/gullible to care, or they are covering their asses. They are afraid to call time-out and expose the truth to their overlords. In a great many cases, the truth will be fatal.
This book will explore…
… how advertisers are being cheated
… why many advertisers don’t know they’re being cheated
… why marketers who know they’re being cheated are afraid to acknowledge it
… how advertising industry “leaders” have failed in their responsibilities
… how perverse incentives compel marketers to keep the con alive
... what you can do to protect yourself