The European ad industry’s anti-fraud programmes prevented €3.45 billion in potential Invalid Traffic (IVT) losses in 2023, reducing those losses by 69% compared to the amount that would have been lost without those programmes in place, according to a new study.
If the other 24% implemented the same programs, an additional €1.075 Billion could be saved, said the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an ad industry advocacy organization. More than three quarters of European advertising agencies implement anti-fraud programs based on standardized best practices developed by TAG.
Without the ad industry anti-fraud programs currently in place, the IVT rate for all display and video advertising in Europe would have been approximately 10.36% in 2023, translating to potential losses of approximately €5 billion.
Losses due to IVT across all channels implementing the TAG practices were 69% lower than potential unfiltered losses. 76% of European ad spend went through channels with TAG protections in 2023, and the rate of IVT loss was held to €368 million, a nominal 1% of the total ad spend through those channels, according to TAG.
TAG produces ad fraud benchmark reports on an annual basis for regions around the world.
Further reading
2025 European Ad Fraud Savings Report. Industry report (PDF). Released June 2025. Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG).
Anti-fraud programmes saved European advertisers €3.45 billion but are still leaving over €1 billion on the table. Landing page with press release and report summary. Accessed June 18, 2025. Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG).
TAG Data and Insights, by Year (from 2017). Landing page for TAG fraud reports. Accessed June 17, 2025. TAG
Why it matters
“(Advertising losses due to fraud) are an unnecessary self-inflicted wound for our industry because not all companies have taken the steps needed to protect their partners across the digital advertising supply chain,” said Jules Kendrick, Chief Growth Officer of TAG.
“The European ad industry has made tremendous strides in reducing the scourge of ad fraud from endemic to manageable levels and saving billions of euros for advertisers,” said Scott Cunningham, founder of Cunningham.Tech Consulting and co-author of the study. “Despite that progress, significant work remains to be done. With continued industry collaboration driving expanded adoption of TAG’s anti-fraud standards, the European industry can ensure that sub-1% fraud rates are the standard across all channels used by advertisers.”
