As digital advertising enters its third decade, advertisers are still spending millions funding spammy “made for advertising” sites and disinformation, a new report finds.

Media analytics ad-tech firm Ebiquity, in partnership with programmatic research firms Jounce Media and DeepSee, found $115 million in ad spend went toward spammy made-for-advertising (MFA) sites—7.8% of the programmatic budget globally and 9.8% in the U.S. The sample was drawn from $1.47 billion spent by 42 Ebiquity clients from January 2020 to March 2022.

The ad spend toward MFA sites not only represents a missed opportunity for advertisers to fund quality media, but potential waste as well.

“The research studies we’ve done through our media lab all show high-quality content drives better ad performance,” said Joshua Lowcock, global chief media officer at UM Worldwide.

Read more on Adweek.