ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Hugh Williams, senior data analyst, ExchangeWire. In this week’s edition: Fraud threatens the credibility of digital advertising; Black Friday not just online phenomenon; and Cyber Monday beaten by December weekend.

Fraud threatens the credibility of digital advertising

Only 40% of major advertisers are confident that more than half of their adverts placed online in the last 12 months have been seen by people, according to research by QueryClick. Just 7% say they thought the proportion viewed by humans rather than bots was 80% or more.

Nine out of ten say that they believe that the lack of transparency in their programmatic ad campaigns is because the ad buying platform (DSP) they use is owned by their advertising agency. Despite four out of ten (41%) advertisers admitting that they have lost trust in programmatic advertising as a result of fraud, 70% are still planning to maintain, or even increase, their programmatic spend over the next 12 months.

The buyers surveyed said that they want to see regulation with some teeth; 85% said independent trade bodies, such as the IAB, should have more authority to monitor and penalise those knowingly committing ad fraud. Publishers selling the advertising space agree, however expressed concerns about introducing regulatory ‘red tape’.

Black Friday not just online phenomenon  

High streets and department stores saw a combined footfall increase of 78% over the Black Friday weekend, in comparison to the previous three weekends in November 2017, finds a study by GroundTruth (formerly xAd).

Home electricals were top of the list for those taking part in this year’s Black Friday, with a quarter (25%) admitting they were planning to seek out deals on things like TVs, music systems, and headphones. This was reflective in GroundTruth’s footfall data which showed a 105% increase in footfall for electronic stores over the Black Friday weekend compared to the three weekends previous.

However, despite popular belief that 2017’s Black Friday would be an online affair, in addition to high streets, department, and electrical stores, GroundTruth found that physical fashion retail stores (42%), coffee shops (26%), restaurants, pubs, and fast-food outlets (50% combined) all saw an increase in footfall across the Black Friday weekend. In addition to this – the opportunity for different types of businesses to capitalise on the ‘sales holiday’ was shown by footfall rising in cinemas (9%) too.

Cyber Monday beaten by December weekend

Despite the bumper performance this year, Cyber Monday is no longer the biggest day of the year for e-commerce sales, according to Adyen.

Even with fewer discounts on offer, the findings show that e-commerce sales increased by an average of 22% each day this weekend (Friday 8th December – Sunday 10th December) compared with Cyber Monday.

The report also shows that the number of e-commerce shopping transactions in the UK increased 20% on 8th Friday, 28% on 9th Saturday, and 17% on 10th Sunday, when compared to Cyber Monday. This trend isn’t just isolated to the UK, with global sales figures showing an increase across the three days (12%, 13%, and 3% across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively).