The state of mobile ad fraud 2021

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Mobile ad fraud is an ever evolving issue for the mobile advertising industry.

While mobile channels are taking center stage, mobile advertising revenue has gone from non-existence into nearly double the amount of desktop advertising over the past decade.

At the same time, a sub-industry has been enjoying the fruits of this global growth trend, with fraudsters finding increasingly creative ways to get a piece of the rising advertising budget pie. 

effect of global events on fraud

As a long-existing factor in the mobile app economy, however, fraud activity isn’t immune to market shifts and global events that affect the advertising budgets they rely on.

2021 has been an eventful year, filled with such changes. And as we edge closer to 2022, it’s time to take a look back and examine how these changes played out.

With entire markets entering quarantine, international travel restrictions and an overall state of economic uncertainty introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, some advertising verticals suffered massive activity blows, while others leveraged the new reality to register significant business growth. 

With fraud activity being typically attracted to where money is available, did it indeed shift from traditionally high focus verticals to emerging ones?

Apple’s introduction of ATT restrictions was yet another change introduced this year, affecting the advertising game across one of the world’s largest operating systems.

The limitation of IDFA and introduction of SKAdNetwork have ushered in the privacy-centric advertising era – by effectively taking personal identifiers out of the advertising game.

This new measurement protocol changed the way marketers manage and optimize their campaigns, as advertising on iOS instantly became more complicated, less informative, and significantly more privacy-oriented.

  • What impact does mobile ad fraud have in the SKAN landscape? 
  • Did SKAN make the job easier or harder for fraudsters?
  • What countries and verticals suffer most from mobile ad fraud?
  • What fraud methods were most popular in 2021?

Get the most updated mobile ad fraud insights to ensure your business is ready for 2022.

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