Back in June, security firm Check Point discovered that 41 apps available from Google’s Play store contained an illegitimate ad clicking function. They were downloaded as many as 36 million times. Dr. Fou, an MIT PHD and Cybersecurity and Ad Fraud Researcher (aka: really smart), calculated that in total they were capable of generating 1 Billion fraudulent clicks a minute. Check Point also uncovered an ad fraud operation called “Fireball” that infected 250 million computers worldwide (5.5 Million in the US). The good Dr. ran those numbers as well – 30 billion fraudulent ad impressions per minute (gasp!). That means if everyone on earth had access to the internet, they’d each click 4 ads per minute.
That seems reasonable.
So, with the heavy adoption of ad blockers (600 million), rogue apps being booted off of ‘Play’ and the discovery of “Fireball”, shouldn’t there be less available inventory, sending CPM’s (cost per 1000 ad Impressions) up?
The answer is no and they never will.
A) The scope of malware distribution is beyond anybody’s grasp. Most have great sophistication and evasion techniques. For every 1 we know of, it’s anybody’s guess as to how many others there are.
B) For every missing user with an ad blocker, there will be a bot waiting to take their place.
