IVT Eats Over 5% of Monthly Digital Budget for Most Marketers, Lunio Finds
Lunio's survey of marketers puts a number on a familiar budget drain: three-quarters of respondents estimate invalid traffic consumes more than 5% of their monthly performance and digital spend. The report noted that "the consequences of IVT extend beyond media efficiency," pointing to bot-generated leads that waste sales team effort and corrupt CRM data. The same week's chart roundup from VideoWeek showed Publicis posting €3.77 billion in Q2 2026 net revenue, with growth in every region except Middle East & Africa, down 8.3% amid the war there. Instagram Reels ads climbed to more than one-third of impressions, nearing Stories' 39% share, while DoubleVerify found Latin American viewers the most likely globally to buy from shoppable streaming ads, at 56% versus 38% in EMEA and North America.
Budget plans built on raw click and lead volume overstate real performance when a meaningful share of that traffic never came from a person. Media teams that skip IVT screening risk feeding fraud-inflated numbers into attribution models and sales pipelines alike, compounding the waste well past the media line itself. Paramount's stock fell 10% after a US judge temporarily blocked its $110 billion Warner Bros Discovery bid, a reminder that even the largest media consolidation deals carry regulatory risk. Stagwell shares are down more than 5% ahead of half-year results, while Nexxen remains the rare adtech stock to rise over the past six months, up 60%.