More than a third of digital marketers are unaware exactly where their adverts are appearing, according to a new poll.
In a survey conducted by Project Sunblock, 38 per cent of marketing decision-makers admit that they aren’t tracking which websites are using their advertising content.
This is likely to be part of the reason why an average of 7.78 billion display advertising impressions are served on malicious and unsavoury websites each year.
According to thedrum.com, many adverts are appearing on websites hosting adult content, illegal peer-to-peer sharing websites and domains hosting malware.
Andrew Goode, chief operating officer at Project Sunblock, urged marketers to invest in real-time analytics software so that they could regain control of their brand’s reputation.
Speaking to itproportal.com, he said: “Now that technology like real-time bidding is the norm, the buy and sell of digital advertising is becoming more instantaneous and harder to track than ever before.
“If left unchecked, brands are leaving themselves open to a raft of potential threats and a proportion of the UK’s online advertising spend will continue to fund criminal activity.”
It was suggested that roughly £2.4 billion worth of digital marketing budgets is being spent on adverts which could potentially end up on malicious websites.
