Some $63 billion (€54.2bn) in global ad spend is wasted annually on invalid traffic (IVT), according to data from Lunio, the IVT detection and prevention platform.

On average, 8.51 per cent of all global paid ad traffic is invalid, meaning nearly one in every 12 ad clicks are fake with zero chance of converting. In the UK, the IVT rate is 7.97 per cent, accounting for $2.9 billion.

Additional findings from The Global Invalid Traffic Report 2026 include:

• TikTok is the worst-performing major ad platform, with an average invalid traffic rate of 24.2 per cent. LinkedIn and X had the next highest rates, at 19.88 per cent and 12.79 per cent, respectively.
• Across the entire Google Ads ecosystem, the average IVT rate is 7.57 per cent. Google Video Partners (20.62 per cent) and Google Display (12.02 per cent) had the highest IVT rate within its ecosystem.
• Lead generation businesses experienced 32.07 per cent higher IVT rates than transactional models.
• Gaming & iGaming (18.5 per cent) is the most affected industry, followed by telecoms, education, real estate, and financial services.

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Tags: advertising, google, IVT, tiktok