October 30, 2014: The topic of how marketers can protect their online ad investments continues to dominate industry headlines, but Canadian marketers seem to be only moderately concerned about the issue, finds a recent Marketer’s Pulse survey by the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). The survey found that the average level of concern regarding online click fraud and inappropriate ad placement was only 5.9 on a 10 point scale.

The findings of the Marketer’s Pulse report are based on a survey conducted September 15 to October 1 among 47 senior Canadian marketers representing a cross section of industry sectors and MarCom spending levels. Participants were asked questions about their current business conditions, perceptions and strategic priorities related to the protection of their online advertising investments.

The report found that marketers’ awareness of whether their ads had been subjected to click fraud or delivery to websites outside the specifications of the buy guidelines was remarkably low (30%).

The report also explored whether marketers are taking steps to validate or protect their campaigns.

“Because Canadian advertisers are only moderately concerned about these issues, it seems that most don’t take steps to validate the delivery of their online campaigns or implement practices to reduce the incidence of fraud” said Susan Charles, Vice President of Membership Services at the ACA. The survey found that only one-third of marketers use an auditing service at least some of the time, and only twenty-one percent of advertisers employ the development of lists of known suspect or fraudulent websites.

The full results of the Marketer’s Pulse survey are available to ACA members and panel participants, and by subscription.