When advertisers spend money on digital ads, only a small portion goes to the original creators of the content. The majority is kept by intermediaries like ad exchanges, traffic brokers, and media agencies. On average, only 15% of total spending on programmatic ads makes it to publishers, with the remaining 85% going to these middlemen in the form of fees and commissions.

1. How your $$$ trickle down into
fraudsters’ and middlemen’s pockets
$150 billion
$15
billion
$135
billion
DCN (good)
publishers
Other sites that carry
programmatic ads
Source: eMarketer, March 2019
97%
spent by big brands
(thru media agencies)
Source: CNN, Jan 2020
Google
37% share
Facebook
22% share
Botnet 1 Botnet 2 Botnet 3
Big Exchange Big Exchange Big Exchange
Small
Exchange
longtailsitestraffic
resellers
(round numbers)
Source: CNBC, Sep 2019
Source: DCN, Oct 2018
18% network
Source: DCN, Oct 2018
82% own properties
Small
Exchange
Small
Exchange
Small
Exchange
Small
Exchange
All Others
32%
Amazon
9%