$22 billion in wasted advertising.

If it was a different sector, this could well be called fraud.

In case you missed it, last week the US Association of National Advertisers released their full report on the state of the programmatic ad market.

And it revealed some shocking insights.

The ANA estimates that around $22 billion in programmatic ad spend is wasteful and unproductive.

However, the reality is that the study undertaken was small in comparison to the scale of the market. It gives us an idea of the problem, but we don't know the full extent of it.

But we do know that in a world where trillions of digital impressions are being served, 70% of consumers find digital ads annoying and unpleasant. A large portion of those use ad blockers where they can, meaning that people are actively paying to ignore the work we do as an industry.

The more clutter we contribute, the harder it becomes to impact a consumer.

Unwanted, irrelevant and unsolicited is also the definition of spam.

I'm a firm believer that there is still an immense opportunity with digital to get brand building right, but too much spend is going elsewhere.

While the ANA report won't solve anything alone, I hope it makes people sit up and take notice.

As an industry, we can and must be better. Conversations need to be had on where budget is truly being spent and how it is being used effectively to grow brands.

While this is a conversation which will go on for years to come, not one party can solve it alone, we need Advertisers, Agencies and Programmatic Partners to all be on side.

The success of this industry depends on it.

I'd strongly recommend spending some time reading the full report, but for those who don't, I've put one action point for each side of the industry that can be implemented straight away:

Advertisers - don't prioritise cost and reach over quality. Not all impressions are equal & misalignment in objectives can lead to the wrong inventory being bought for the wrong reasons. Take the time to understand what media is most effective, and what budget is being wasted, and be prepared to scrutinise where efficiencies can be made.

Programmatic / Ad Tech Vendors - Don't just mention transparency, but proactively show it, help us with solutions that ensure the media being bought is quality and trusted.

Agencies - as a start, build inclusion lists with publisher domains you can trust, that attracted your desired audience, use a range of data points to build this out and validate the inventory you're serving across. At a very minimum, any site where your ads are serving should be TXT compliant.

The modern ad landscape is complex and ever-changing, and the reality is, we can't fix a billion-dollar problem overnight.

But I hope as an industry we can all push for a better future.

Advertising shouldn't just be a piece of digital spam. It should be content, storytelling, connection, and so much more.