DoubleVerify’s DV Global Insights: 2024 APAC Report has revealed that the ANZ overall fraud rate increased 14 per cent to reach 1.3 per cent — the second-worst fraud rate in APAC. During the same period, ANZ brand suitability violations fell 46 per cent to reach 5.4 per cent. ANZ viewability rates remain relatively stable year-over-year, with the video viewability rate of 75 per cent on par with the global benchmark.
Globally, a 23 per cent surge in new fraud schemes and variants compared to the previous year was reported, and unprotected advertisers saw a fraud/SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic) violation rate as high as 17 per cent. These violations include incidents of bot fraud, site fraud, app fraud, hijacked devices, data centre traffic and injected ad events, all of which illegitimately inflate online advertising impressions or data events to generate revenue. Generative AI was found to be a key factor for the increase — due to the ease with which it can falsify data patterns.
The report also highlights the growing global importance of attention-based measurement in advertising, particularly as cookies phase out and the demand for more transparent metrics increases. In 2023, advertisers increasingly prioritised attention metrics, with 47 per cent of media buyers planning to integrate these metrics into their strategies in 2024.
Retail media networks were reported as being over-index for media quality in terms of brand suitability and ad fraud, with fraud rates nearly one-third (31 per cent) lower than the DV overall fraud benchmark and brand suitability violations lower by 10 per cent than the DV overall brand suitability benchmark.
DV’s analysis also showed a 19 per cent year-over-year increase in MFA impression volume in 2023. The growth was primarily driven by a 73 per cent increase in “Low-tier” MFA impressions, which appear on hybrid sites that include a mix of MFA and non-MFA characteristics. The report notes that while MFAs may appear high-performing when looking at specific isolated KPIs, such as clicks and viewability, MFA sites deliver 7 per cent less overall attention on display ads and 28 per cent less on video than other media.
Further APAC findings from the study include:
- 58 per cent of APAC media buyers say responsible investment frameworks have had significant positive impact on media quality
- 58 per cent of APAC marketers spend more than 20 per cent of their workweek manually optimising digital media campaigns;
- 60 per cent of APAC marketers think AI-driven campaign optimisation will have the most significant positive impact on media quality
The DV Global Insights: 2024 Trends Report covers video and display impressions from January to December 2023 across desktop, mobile web, mobile app, and connected TV (CTV) insights. It also incorporates a global survey conducted by Sapio Research which polled 1,000 advertisers globally regarding the impact Generative AI has on the online digital ecosystem. It found that 57 per cent of the advertisers surveyed view misinformation spread by AI-generated content as a key challenge for the digital ecosystem, 54 per cent believe Generative AI has negatively impacted media quality, and 50 per cent believe an increase in MFA and low-quality content was “the biggest threat” to the digital ad ecosystem.
“It’s no surprise that advertisers are concerned. Gen AI has incredible potential for the ad industry in areas like creative development and media optimisation, but it can also be weaponised against it. Ultimately, brands need dynamic tools to help them safeguard investments and maximise campaign performance,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify.
