What you need to know:

• Digital agency Next&Co has released its latest Digital Media Wastage Report, which analyses the online ad spend of a selection of companies. In the first quarter of 2022, it has estimated $134m was wasted by 81 businesses.
• That amounts to 40 per cent of media spend, on average.

More than $134 million was wasted in digital advertising between January and March this year, according to analysis of 81 companies by digital agency Next&Co.

The agency’s latest Digital Media Wastage Report looked at companies with digital budgets between $500,000 and $39m that ranged from multinationals to SMEs.

Created with Next&Co’s Prometheus tool, the agency found retailers wasted $31m, insurance wasted $28m, finance $25.5m, real estate $18.8m, education $16m and health $14.7m. It counted $134.3m in total.

Most of the ad spend was wasted on Facebook, at $52m, followed by Google at $43m and LinkedIn at $28m.

Next&Co’s co-founder John Vlasakakis said there’s a lesson for procurement divisions in the data.

“Procurement also needs to provide more negotiating power to marketing,” he said. “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.”

The digital advertising market in Australia has been growing rapidly, smashing forecasts to reach close to $13 billion in 2021.