APAC advertisers record more than $137.4m in digital ad spend wastage
More than $137.4m is set to be wasted by advertisers in the Asia Pacific in January to March 2022 because of complacency and limitless spending, according to a report.
The report also found the most digital ad spend will be wasted on Facebook at $53m / Pixabay
This digital ad spend wastage will surpass the wastage in Australia, according to Next&Co’s Digital Media Wastage report. It found that brands in the retail sector will report the most digital ad spend wastage, of almost $32 million, followed by insurance at $28m, finance at $26.5m, real estate at $19.8m, education at $16m and health at $14.7m.
The report also found 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.
“It’s alarming to see what are unacceptable levels of digital ad spend wastage in the region, especially as digital spend set to reach $4bn in South East Asia and increasing to a third of all ad spend,” said John Vlasakakis, the co-founder of Next&Co.
“Brands need to become more aware of the dangers 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.”
Vlasakakis added that 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.”
Some 81 publicly listed, multinational, national and SME companies with digital ad budgets of between $500,000 to $39m were audited for the report.