Ad Fraud Damage Expands Amid AI-Optimized Ad Operations, Estimated Domestic Damage to Reach Approximately ¥159.2 Billion in 2025

Spider Labs Inc. (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Satoko Otsuki; hereinafter "Spider Labs") has announced the "Ad Fraud Research Report (Annual Edition 2026)," which summarizes the state of ad fraud in Japan from January 1 to December 31, 2025. This report is based on annual analysis data from "Spider AF," the company's ad fraud prevention tool, and details the scale and impact of ad fraud, as well as new risks in ad operations that are increasingly optimized by AI.

▼Full report available here (free download) https://jp.spideraf.com/adfraud-report-whitepaper-2026

▪️What is Ad Fraud?

Ad fraud refers to acts that unfairly consume advertising costs by generating worthless impressions, clicks, and conversions through malicious programs, malicious users, or inappropriate sites. It includes not only malicious reward exploitation but also invalid impressions, clicks, and conversions that offer no advertising effect contrary to the advertiser's intent.

▪️Survey Summary

Estimated domestic damage approximately ¥159.2 billion, losses remain high with advertising market expansion

In 2025, the estimated ad fraud damage in Japan reached approximately ¥159,177,330,000, an increase of ¥8.2 billion from the previous year. While the average occurrence rate slightly decreased, the total damage continues to increase in line with the overall expansion of the advertising market.

Rapid expansion of AI optimization menus, ad operations moving towards "AI-first"

This year's report highlights the rapid expansion of AI optimization menus in ad operations. Delivery volume has grown by 192% in just over a year, and its proportion in programmatic advertising is expected to continue rising. However, AI-optimized campaigns on major ad platforms show a fraud rate of up to 5.2%, which is up to twice the overall media average of 2.2-2.5%, revealing new risks associated with increased automation.

Surge in placements on MFA sites, a serious ad spend leakage risk in the AI era

This year's report also focuses on the rapid increase in "MFA (Made For Advertising) sites," which are primarily created to generate ad revenue. The number of placements on MFA sites detected by Spider AF over the past year increased by 1,409% year-on-year, and the damage amount increased by 533% year-on-year. The number and scale of these sites are rapidly expanding, driven by factors such as content mass production using generative AI. In particular, with the spread of AI-optimized campaigns, MFA sites are being mistakenly recognized as "high-efficiency slots" due to the difficulty in controlling ad placements, contributing to the expansion of damage.

From Spider Labs "Ad Fraud Research Report (Annual Edition 2026)"

The research report also details the following:

・Trends and breakdown of ad fraud damage

・Ad fraud risks by industry

・Rising fraud risks in AI-optimized advertising

・New fraud methods, including MFA sites

・Comparison of performance differences based on click quality

・Importance of data quality affecting advertising performance

▼Full report available here (free download) https://jp.spideraf.com/adfraud-report-whitepaper-2026

▪️Survey Overview

Name: Ad Fraud Research Report (Annual Edition 2026)

Survey Body: Spider Labs Inc.

Analysis Target: Ad traffic measured by "Spider AF Ad Fraud Prevention"

Analyzed Clicks: 6,058,522,153 clicks

Survey Period: January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025

Survey Method: Proprietary database

▪️About Spider AF Ad Fraud Prevention

The ad fraud prevention tool "Spider AF Ad Fraud Prevention" detects and blocks ad fraud (advertising irregularities) that inevitably occurs to a certain extent during ad placement. Spider AF offers a free diagnosis of ad fraud damage, allowing anyone to easily implement ad fraud countermeasures by simply installing a tag for automatic detection and blocking. Since its launch, it has been widely used by ad network operators, agencies, and advertisers.

▪️About Spider Labs Inc.

Company Name: Spider Labs Inc.

Head Office Location: Minami Aoyama ST Building 4F, 7-10-3 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Representative Director: Satoko Otsuki

Business Activities: Planning, development, and operation of the marketing security tool "Spider AF"

Provision of security solutions for ad fraud, resale, fraudulent leads, affiliates, etc.

Established: April 2011

Website: https://jp.spideraf.com/