DoubleVerify Report: As Ad Dollars Move to Connected TV, Fraud Schemes Spike 70% Globally

DoubleVerify (“DV”), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, today released its 2022 Global Insights Report, analysing media quality and performance trends from more than one trillion impressions delivered across over 2,100 brands in 80 markets. This fifth year anniversary report explores how far the industry has come since 2017.

“The good news is that verification is working,” said Mark Zagorski (main image), CEO, DoubleVerify. “DV’s first-ever Global Insights Report, published in 2017, reported display viewable rates at 52 per cent and video viewable rates at 59 per cent. Now, they are near or above 70 per cent. Additionally we saw brand safety violations decrease for the second year in a row, while the number of fraud schemes we were able to protect our clients from increased.  Based on our stats, it is clear that verification technology is making the internet stronger, safer and more secure.”

The report provides a market-by-market analysis for North America, LATAM, EMEA and APAC across video and display impressions measured year-over-year (YoY) from January-December 2021, including desktop and mobile web, mobile app, and connected TV (CTV). Key takeaways from our analysis this year include:

Record Spike in Fraud Schemes, Driven by CTV and Video — The number of fraud schemes uncovered by DV spiked by over 70 per cent year-over-year from 2020 to 2021. This year, an unprecedented number of schemes targeted CTV and video – the most complex and sophisticated of which included OctoBot, SneakyTerra, ViperBot and SmokeScreen. We estimate these schemes alone attempted to steal more than $6-8 million each month from advertisers – and are costing publishers, too. DV estimates show that these CTV schemes alone may have siphoned $140 million from publishers in 2021.

Brand Safety Violations Decrease for 2nd Year in a Row — The post-bid brand suitability violation rate continues to fall, and is now 9% lower than last year for an overall rate of 7.1 per cent – meaning advertisers see brand suitability violation rates decrease as their verification strategy matures. DV also saw momentum for a brand safety and suitability floor. In 2019, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and the 4A’s released the brand safety floor and suitability framework. The brand safety floor identifies topics and content that are considered unsafe and never appropriate for monetisation. Ninety-three percent of the advertisers DV analysed leverage at least one brand safety floor category for avoidance, blocking and or monitoring, and 61% use all floor categories.

Video Ads See Impressive Growth in Attention, Driven by CTV — Video Completion typically refers to the number of times a video plays to the end, often broken up into quartile metrics to indicate levels of video performance and attention (e.g. 25 per cent Complete, 50 per cent Complete, 75 per cent Complete, 100 per cent Complete). DV has seen moderate, steady improvement in quartile-level completion rates for quartiles 1, 2, and 3 over the last three years. However, Video Completion Rate (VCR) has drastically improved from 62 per cent in 2019, to 67 per cent in 2020, to 71 per cent in 2021. This increase is likely due to increased measurement on CTV, where VCR climbed three per cent year-over-year and is now at 95.6 per cent.

Post-bid Quality Violations Decline for Second Year — Increased adoption of pre-bid verification is driving declines in post-bid violations (brand safety/suitability, fraud and geo infractions). Pre-bid activation of verification solutions allows advertisers to reduce blocks by evaluating whether a programmatic impression will be brand-suitable, fraud-free, and in geo before the bid takes place. Advertisers deploying pre-bid verification through the media transaction are seeing marked improvement in the quality of their buys, with post-bid violation rates falling six per centyear-over-year. Overall, DV advertisers now experience an average of just 10 per cent post-bid violations across all quality measurement criteria.

Experience is Driving More Sophisticated Verification Strategies — The number of years a brand has worked with a verification provider typically equates to greater sophistication and understanding of the value of such verification tools, ultimately resulting in lower violation rates, greater campaign quality, and efficiency. DV found that long-standing verification users are most likely to adopt a wider set of verification tools, preventing fraud and brand suitability infractions before an ad is served. These advanced advertisers saw a 9.4 per cent post-bid violation rate in 2021– six per cent below the global average and 28 per cent below more recent adopters.

For APAC & Australia specifically key findings include:

• APAC has the lowest post-bid fraud rate at one per cent, compared with North America (1.5 per cent), EMEA (1.4 per cent) and LATAM (1.3 per cent). This doesn’t mean that fraud isn’t present in APAC, just that pre-bid controls are likely eliminating fraud before it can be processed for post-bid blocking or monitoring.
  • Australia’s post-bid fraud rate is 1.4 per cent – the second highest in APAC, behind Hong Kong (two per cent).

• APAC brand suitability violations dropped by 31 per cent year-over-year to 6.9 per cent, capturing how sophisticated brands have become with their policies to balance protection with the ability to scale. Only North America (6.6 per cent) has a lower violation rate, with EMEA (9.4 per cent) and LATAM (10.3 per cent).
  • Australia brand suitability violations dropped by 17 per cent to a 8.2 per cent violation rate, the third highest in APAC behind New Zealand (9.5 per cent) and Malaysia (8.6 per cent).

• APAC Video Viewable rates are the highest in the world, up 17 per cent to a 82.8 per cent rate. This compares to EMEA (75.1 per cent), LATAM (77.4 per cent) and North America (71.1 per cent)
  • Although comparatively high on a global basis, Australia video viewable rates are down eight per cent to 72 per cent, the second lowest in APAC, behind Hong Kong (64 per cent).

• Display Viewable rates in APAC are increasing, but at 64.6 per cent remain five percentage points below the display viewable 70 per cent threshold recommended by the IAB. Only EMEA has a lower display viewable rate (64.4 per cent), with North America (66.7 per cent) and LATAM (71.9 per cent).
  • Australia display viewable rates are joint-third highest in APAC, up six per cent to a display viewable rate of 69 per cent, equal to Indonesia (69 per cent) and behind Malaysia (71 per cent) and Philippines (75 per cent).

“The report demonstrates that actions like pre-bid controls, cleaning up keyword lists and implementing Authentic Brand Suitability targeting is having a real impact on the performance of brand campaigns across Australia and the rest of APAC, ” said Imran Masood, Country Manager of DoubleVerify, AUNZ. “We are also seeing the effects of brands and their agencies deploying more sophisticated verification strategies which is driving lower violation rates, greater campaign quality, and efficiency.”