Singapore – As digital advertising expenditure reaches new records, advertisers continue to waste their ad dollars through the Asia-Pacific, with more than $137.4m set to be wasted in the January to March 2022 quarter, according to data from independent media agency Next&Co.
The report found that brands in the retail sector will report the most digital ad spend wastage, of almost $32m. It was followed by insurance at $28m, finance at $26.5m, real estate at $19.8m, education at $16m, and health at $14.7m.
Across digital media channels, the most digital ad spend will be wasted on Facebook at $53m, followed by Google at $45m, LinkedIn at $28m, and Bing at $10.7m.
The data was collected using the company’s proprietary media auditing tool Prometheus.
John Vlasakakis, co-founder at Next&Co, said, “It’s alarming to see what are unacceptable levels of digital ad spend wastage in the region, especially as digital spend is set to reach $4 billion in Southeast Asia and increasing to a third of all ad spend. Prometheus has now audited more than 500 brands across APAC, with all showing varying levels of wastage across industry categories – brands need to become more aware of the dangers of complacency breeds. Spending smarter and not harder needs to be the attitude amongst brands of all sizes as this is how scale and company growth can be achieved.”
He added, “Procurement also needs to provide more negotiating power to marketing. For example, the fact that one financial services provider had procurement negotiate the cheapest rate but allowed for a clause for the agency to never be audited during their three-year term gobsmacked me. If that isn’t a red flag, I don’t know what is. Digital marketing activity isn’t occurring above board, and they are now powerless to take action.”
