DoubleVerify 2023 Global Insights Report highlights surge in CTV fraud and quantifies the cost of ignoring quality in digital media

DoubleVerify released its 2023 Global Insights Report, analyzing 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.”

“According to eMarketer, digital ad spend is estimated to reach almost $9 billion USD by 2027. It is imperative for advertisers to ensure their media investments are delivering the desired outcomes,” said Nachiket Deole, Head of Sales, India at DoubleVerify. “DV’s Global Insights Report underscores the importance of ad verification by outlining the case for “always-on” and showing why protecting your media buys across channels is now more essential than ever.”

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

DV Data Show Post-bid Quality Improving and Stabilizing Year-Over-Year

India’s video viewability rate dropped the most in APAC due to a decrease associated with mobile apps. In India, four-fifths of all video ads are viewed on mobile apps, which had an 18% drop in video viewability.
Although India’s display viewability in the APAC region is comparatively low at 68%, it has experienced a positive trend with a 4% improvement. This improvement can be attributed to a significant YoY increase of 23% in the mobile app display viewable rate.
Similarly, India’s Authentic Viewable rate stands at 64%, showing a similar upward trend with a 1% increase. This increase is primarily driven by the 22% YoY growth in the Authentic Viewable rate for display on mobile apps.
In addition, India witnessed a remarkable shift in fraud/SIVT rates, primarily attributed to a substantial surge in the metric on desktop devices (increasing by 234%). Nonetheless, India successfully maintained its position as one of the countries with the lowest rates in the region.

CTV Consumption Surges, but the Channel Continues to Be a Target for Fraud

An increase in streaming subscriptions — which include free, ad supported plans — is fueling CTV’s ascension. As CTV becomes a top channel for consumers and advertisers alike, measurement and protection are becoming increasingly important, because with growth comes growing pains.

Globally, CTV impressions grew by 62% year-over-year.
India stood out as one of the fastest growing countries globally ,with CTV impressions increasing 369% year over year.
At 96%, worldwide video completion rates on CTV are the highest across all devices measured.
Bot fraud on CTV surged 69% in 2022 compared with the year prior.
The number of CTV fraud schemes and variants DV detected annually has tripled since 2020.
For unprotected advertisers, CTV fraud violations measured 11.2% — compared with 0.6 percent for protected campaigns.

Opportunity Exists for Advertisers That Prioritize Attention

Amid economic uncertainty and deprecation of personal identifiers, advertisers are increasingly turning to attention-based measurement to help optimize campaign performance and enhance ROI. Key insights DV uncovered include:

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.

Emerging Channels Embrace Verification

DV reveals key metrics on media quality and performance across nascent environments including audio, gaming and retail media:

9.8% of mobile app games are classified by DV as a high or medium brand suitability risk.
For Retail Media Networks (RMNs), audience extension has a 129% higher Violation Rate, but a 91% higher Viewable Rate than owned and operated inventory.
First large-scale SSAI fraud scheme — BeatSting — targeted audio media in early 2023; BeatSting cost unprotected advertisers up to $1 million a month.

These insights underscore the need to keep verification on and expand it across all emerging channels and ad platforms to ensure campaign success.

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

Disclaimer: Information mentioned here has not been verified or endorsed by Agency Reporter and is in accordance with the press release shared by the company or their appointed representatives.