Surge In CTV Fraud

The DoubleVerify 2023 Global Insights Report Highlights A Surge in CTV Fraud and Quantifies the Cost of Ignoring Quality in Digital Media

DV's annual report spotlights the importance of continuous protection to tackle quality issues across emerging ad platforms, as well as newly-available attention-based metrics

DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, today released its 2023 Global Insights Report, analysing trends from nearly 5.5 trillion media transactions across over 1,000 customers in nearly 100 countries. The report highlights key digital media quality trends, and demonstrates the need for always-on verification across channels to create the foundation for impactful performance.

"Based on our research, in order to drive consistent performance, it is essential that advertisers engage verification across all campaigns and environments," said Collette Spagnolo, Vice President of Marketing Analytics at DoubleVerify. "When verification is turned off or not applied, an advertiser becomes vulnerable to the swings in quality caused by unpredictable news cycles and increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes. Moreover, always-on protection helps the industry maintain a common and consistent gauge of media quality everywhere, as verification techniques evolve to encompass emerging channels for content consumption. Having coverage, protection and insight into all channels is critical."

This year’s report looked at quality trends across regions and devices, and compared results for campaigns that leverage verification (managed/protected) to a campaign that did not (unmanaged/unprotected) — with dramatic differences in quality.

Key takeaways from DoubleVerify’s report this year include:

CTV consumption surges, but the channel continues to be a target for fraud.

In Australia, CTV content consumption and quality verification grew by 150% year-over-year, as compared with 62% globally. An increase in streaming subscriptions, including free and ad supported plans, is propelling CTV as a top channel of choice for consumers and advertisers alike. As investments and attention in CTV grow, so too does the opportunity for fraud and the importance of measurement and protection to mitigate risks and exposure.

In particular, bot fraud on CTV surged by 69% in 2022 compared with the year prior globally, and the number of CTV fraud schemes and variants DV detected annually has tripled since 2020. For unprotected advertisers, the risk is significant. To quantify the risk, DV compared protected advertisers’ fraud rates against a campaign where verification was not in place. For unprotected advertisers, CTV fraud violations measured 11.2% — compared with 0.6 percent for protected campaigns.

Post-bid quality improving and stabilising year-over-year.

The DV report finds that APAC leads key quality indicators across all regions with high video viewability and low fraud/SIVT violation rates. APAC also has the second lowest brand suitability violation rate among all regions, however, the region only showed a 2% year-over-year decrease in its brand suitability violation rate. This is partially due to Australia’s rate increasing by 22%, with a 49% increase for mobile web alone.

Amid economic uncertainty and deprecation of personal identifiers, advertisers are increasingly turning to attention-based measurement to help optimise campaign performance and enhance ROI. Media investments in APAC are heavily focused on in-app inventory. APAC historically has excellent video performance, and ads placed in mobile apps see higher overall attention. Most advertisers run campaigns that deliver to sites or apps that have low attention rates; however, DV’s analysis shows there is significant available inventory that could deliver higher attention and performance.

Imran Masood, Country Manager of ANZ at DoubleVerify, commented, "Our 2023 Global Insights Report not only highlights the significant surge in CTV consumption and associated fraud but also emphasises the crucial role of always on verification in today's ever-evolving digital media landscape. The dramatic discrepancy in quality between protected and unprotected campaigns reinforces the high cost of inaction for advertisers. It's encouraging to see advertisers turning increasingly towards attention-based measurement for better campaign performance optimisation and insights, and enhanced value-driven ROI."

In addition to its findings on CTV fraud and attention, DV’s Global Insights Report features new data on the ROI of verification as well as the need for always on verification to ensure consistent quality assurance across all platforms, environments and formats.

For the full 2023 Global Insights Report, visit: doubleverify.com/2023-global-insights-report

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