As ad fraud costs Australian advertisers $5.16 billion annually, JOLT points to a structural solution as new MOVE measurement adds precision
As new research confirms Australian advertisers are losing up to 30 per cent of their digital budgets to bot fraud – costing the economy an estimated $5.16 billion a year – JOLT CEO Doug McNamee argues that the answer isn’t to abandon digital, it is to invest in the part of digital that fraud can’t infiltrate.
“The ad fraud crisis is a structural problem specific to online advertising,” said McNamee. “Search, social, CTV and display run on infrastructure that sophisticated bots can exploit at every layer. Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is fundamentally different. It’s data-driven, dynamic and measurable – but the screen exists in the physical world, seen by a real human being. There is no supply chain vulnerability for a bot to exploit.”
JOLT operates Australia’s largest integrated EV charging and DOOH network; with screens physically embedded in high-dwell public environments, delivering verified human audiences at scale. The network combines the targeting and measurement capabilities of digital media with the fraud-proof reality of a physical screen.
McNamee’s comments come on the same day MOVE – Australia’s new $20 million OOH audience measurement system – officially launches, delivering hour-by-hour, panel-level audience data across 180,000+ outdoor sites nationally.
“Today is significant for the whole industry,” said McNamee. “Advertisers have always known DOOH reaches real people. Now, with MOVE, we can demonstrate it with a level of precision and transparency that rivals any digital channel, without any of the fraud risk. That’s a genuinely new proposition for Australian marketers.”
With total Australian online advertising spend estimated at $18.4 billion in 2025, and bot activity confirmed across every major digital platform, JOLT is encouraging marketers to examine their media mix: not to retreat from digital, but to ensure a meaningful portion flows to channels where every impression is human and verified.
JOLT is the world’s largest integrated EV charging and digital out-of-home media network, operating across Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Recognised by TIME and Statista as one of the world’s top 250 greentech companies, JOLT combines the power of digital media with real-world, human-verified audiences and unique first party data utilising its Spark Intelligence data platform, delivering measurable impact for advertisers with zero bot exposure.
