AdMaster has found that invalid traffic made up 28.8% of the total advertising traffic in H1 2018, in China. It was, however, less than both H1 2017 (29.6%) and H1 2016 (30.4%), showing a steady tendency of decrease. AdMaster is an independent third-party measurement company, providing measurement and analysis solutions.
Data was taken from digital advertising campaigns AdMaster measured for over 1000 advertisers in H1 2018 in China, including those from FMCG, baby & mom, auto, F&B, finance, and internet industries. Data from Tencent, Weibo, Alibaba, Jingdong, AutoNavi, and VipShop among others has been integrated.
AdMaster target different types of traffic fraud, including VOA (verification of advertising for content-targeting buy) and SNAP (ad verification and screen capture). AdMaster's pre-bid antifraud technology can use past data to identify GIVT/SIVT before any traffic is requested or advertising is served.  AdMaster says that also defends advertisers against invalid traffic through comprehensive analysis and modeling.
According to AdMaster, monthly invalid traffic in Jan-June 2018 has decreased compared to the same period in 2017. In particular, the typical annual invalid traffic peaks in January and June have respectively decreased from 38.9% and 36.2% last year to 32.1% and 31.7% this year.
Women, baby & mom, and auto have the highest invalid traffic percentages among vertical sites (41.2%, 39.8%, and 39.6%). Invalid traffic percentage in auto vertical sites has increased from last year, while invalid traffic percentage for every other vertical site type has decreased.
PC has the highest invalid traffic percentage among all devices (34.7%), significantly higher than both mobile (19.5%) and CTV (8.9%). Compared to H1 2017, invalid traffic percentage has decreased in all devices.
"Invalid traffic impacts both advertisers and media. It lowers traffic quality and affects effectiveness measurements and audience analytics. Fortunately, we've seen a decrease in invalid traffic in the China market over the last three years," said Calvin Chan, AdMaster CEO.