Most marketers have had negative experiences in their digital marketing, AMAA survey suggests
Most marketing and agency professionals say they experienced a negative event with their digital marketing, a new survey by the Audited Media Association of Australia (AMAA) indicates.
According to the AMAA, around 60% of the 407 surveyed said they had experienced some sort of bad outcome with their digital marketing. A total of 36% said they were impacted by misreporting of measurement metrics, while 32% were affected by “brand safety compromises”, and 13% said they were affected by ad fraud.
Six in ten marketing and agency professionals had a negative digital marketing event, the study suggests
The new data comes from AMAA’s annual Trust Matters Research which aims to provide insights into ad trading decisions. The research was completed by agency The Insights Grill through an online survey between April and May this year.
Of those who said they had had a negative impact, 70% said it had led to wasted advertising dollars.
Concerns about non-human traffic have increased, with 53% of professionals arguing it was an issue to tackle in the next 12 months, compared to 39% last year. More than 50% of marketers also saw ad fraud as an issue, compared to 44% the year prior.
However, one of the biggest issues to tackle in the next 12 months, according to marketing and agencies, is proof of performance measurement. The results show 59% of those surveyed said it was an issue for the industry to tackle. Additionally, 56% of those surveyed said cross-media audience measurement was a priority.
Less prevalent was advertising viewability, with 45% of marketers naming it a priority. Ad blocking tech and proof of posting were also less prominent as an issue (43% and 37% respectively).
Other findings suggest 63% of marketers and agencies believe social media needs more oversight to ensure adoption of best practices, which in turn will build industry trust. 56% said programmatic trading was also important.
Source: AMAA
Social media oversight was more important for agencies as was programmatic.
In terms of certifying digital ad trading to best practice, which could ultimately reduce ad fraud and brand safety compromises, marketers said the main reason was a lack of awareness of issues (52%). But agencies suggested the main reason was no one wanting to pay for it (50%).
“In terms of what is holding us back, from more robust self-regulation to address the issues, marketers indicated the top two reasons are lack of awareness and complacency,” AMAA CEO Josanne Ryan said.
“The AMAA view is that the industry cannot afford to be complacent, we need to ensure we are approaching the issues from both a individual marketer perspective and at the holistic industry level.”
To request a copy of the research, please email marketing@auditedmedia.org.au.
