In today’s fast-moving advertising environment, it’s tempting to treat media budget waste as an inevitable overhead. After all, when we buy a mix of impressions, clicks and views, there are so many variables that some level of inefficiency is unavoidable, right? To a degree, but the fact is, systemic issues also play a role in losing potential media wins to waste.
How much waste are we talking?
In Australia, various sources estimate $25 billion is spent annually on media, with 20% to 30% of that being wasted. Not exactly chump change. In fact, that kind of cash could have paid for 11960 new homes to help the housing crisis.
Then there’s the cost of ad fraud. The online sleight of hand that’s emptying our pockets. According to Anura on a global scale, losses are estimated to exceed US$140 billion in 2024 and could reach US$172 billion by 2028 in the social-media space alone. Fool me twice, right?
More broadly, an industry summary from eMarketer notes that ad tech inefficiencies waste 12% of ad budgets worldwide.
Put simply, a growing chunk of media budgets isn’t adding value; it’s draining it. But there are contributing factors.
What’s working against us?
Online ad serving methods: Supply impressions are outnumbering genuine demand. It’s like printing thousands of flyers for a crowd of five hundred. This is due to systems being optimised for fill rather than relevance. Platforms also prioritise volume and ease. Resulting in media served in sub-optimal placements, with advertisers left in the dark.
Fraud and invalid traffic: Programmatic and open-web inventory are still undermined by invalid traffic. According to pixalate.com Australia’s invalid traffic is close to 12%. This means a significant number of impressions are likely not actually human. Sure, you’re buying reach. But will bots buy your toilet paper?
Inaccurate measurement systems: Even if ads are delivered legitimately, measurement frameworks can be a bit wonky. Platforms provide their own metrics; agencies stitch together disparate data and attribution models can be simplistic or flawed. Plus, according to eMarketer 12% of ad budgets are wasted globally due to ad tech stack misalignment or inefficiencies.
We’re embarking on a war on waste
No one would blame you for thinking waste comes with the territory. But we can no longer afford to just cop it sweet. Every dollar wasted is a dollar that isn’t invested elsewhere. Leading to diminished growth opportunities. As decision-makers, we owe it to our brands and ourselves to treat waste not as an inevitability but a call for course-correction.
That’s why at AFFINITY, we’re combining advanced analytics, AI-powered insights, and strategic expertise to launch AFFINITY’s Media+™. This innovation gives marketers a clear answer to one critical question ‘What’s actually working?’ Investment identified as being wasted is then redirected back into attributable and measurable effectiveness.
The first step is AFFINITY’s Media Waste Calculator. This free, easy-to-use online tool gives a quick assessment of how much of your media investment is potentially being wasted. Developed entirely by AFFINITY, the heart of the tool is a complex algorithm that models its assessment based on over 50 trusted data sources of leading research on media wastage.
For those confronted by the calculator’s initial assessment, AFFINITY also provides a premium diagnostic and managed service to pinpoint the specific media waste in their marketing mix, with a comprehensive report of the findings. This is completed in a matter of days. We’re democratising access to economics to move the needle on media effectiveness.
With Media+™, marketers can avoid costly media misfires and use the money saved more productively. Together, let’s start the movement against media budget waste and move towards greater growth opportunities.
