Mobile app brand safety violations have grown 194 percent YoY alongside of increased mobile users and corresponding ad budgets, according to DoubleVerify’s ‘Global Insights Report.’
The report measures key media quality and performance trends on brand safety, fraud, viewability and performance to assess how advertisers can adjust strategies to achieve an efficient return on investment (ROI) on digital investments.
DoubleVerify surveyed over 1,000 brands spanning 75 countries, including North America, Latina America, APAC, and EMEA, from May 2018 to April 2019.
Emerging channels and premium inventory were also hit as fraudulent incidents rose 120 percent for connected television (CTV) and mobile apps. Brand incident rates increased slightly from 6.2 percent in 2018 to 6.5 percent in 2019. Categories with the highest brand safety violations include entertainment followed by travel, finance, pharma, and auto.
Mobile app fraud increased by six percent while desktop fraud fell by seven percent. About half of the fraud occurring on mobile apps include ad impression fraud and invalid traffic practices like hidden ads, laundering, and misrepresentation.
“Viewability across devices continued a steady climb YoY, with overall display viewability at 58 percent (2018: 55 percent) and video viewability measured at 62 percent (2018: 59 percent). This positive trend is encouraging, but still falls short of both IAB standards and advertisers’ growing demand for 100 percent viewability,” the report states. “The bright spot is mobile app, where display and video viewability topped 70 percent in both formats.”
APAC saw the lowest overall fraud rates globally whereas brand safety incident rates in EMEA were the highest, with an increase of 17 percent within the first four months of 2019.
