More than $100 million in digital media advertising expenditure was wasted over the past six months, according to the half-yearly Next&Co Digital Media Wastage Report.
The figure represents an average of 38% ad wastage between July and December 2021 from more than 130 businesses audited.
The data, compiled from Next&Co’s Prometheus proprietary media auditing tool, found almost a third – or $3 billion - of digital ad spend was wasted annually, failing to be effective towards digital advertising commercial objectives.
The report audited b rands from the pharmaceutical, real estate, finance, retail, insurance and education sectors, across ASX-listed, multinational, national and SME companies.
Wastage in the retail sector was largest, at nearly $30 million. It was followed by finance, with $27 million wasted, real estate ($15 million), insurance ($15 million), pharmaceuticals ($13 million) and education ($3 million).
Across digital media channels, the most digital ad spend was wasted on Facebook at $37 million, then Google at $34 million, LinkedIn at $21 million and Bing at $9 million.
Next&Co Co-founder John Vlasakakis,: “Brands really need to invest time in auditing their budgeting process to focus on spending smarter, not harder.
"Having now audited more than 600 brands, we have seen tens of millions of dollars wasted across campaigns that are driving zero value in terms of commercial objectives, by bidding on terms that drive no sales or enquiries, or buying against the wrong demographic and audiences.
"Brands need to treat their marketing spend as their own money and livelihood. With this attitude, people will take wasted media spend more seriously.”
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