DoubleVerify Global Study: EMEA Has Highest Fraud Rate, While UK Brand Suitability Violations Fall and Global Video Impressions Surge

DoubleVerify ("DV"), (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, released its 2021 Global Insights Report, an annual study on the current state of digital media quality and performance.

For the study, DV analysed more than one trillion impressions in 80 markets across more than 2,100 brands. The report provides a market-by-market analysis for North America, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC of video and display impressions measured year-over-year (YoY) from May 2020 to April 2021 across desktop and mobile web, mobile app, and CTV.

“Advertisers across EMEA need assurance their media investments are driving campaign quality and performance. While it’s encouraging to see brand suitability violations fall in the UK, EMEA as a whole has the highest brand suitability violation and fraud rates globally. More must be done to give brands the insights and controls necessary to truly optimise their digital strategies,” commented Tanzil Bukhari, managing director, EMEA at DoubleVerify.

EMEA Snapshot:

• UK Bucks EMEA Trend Of Rising Brand Suitability Violations – EMEA has the highest brand suitability violation rate (in which ads are either served or blocked from being served alongside unsuitable content) at just below 10%, and saw just a 1% YoY decrease, with large fluctuations between regions, such as:
• France: 29% increase in violations
• Germany: 8% increase in violations
• Italy: 15% decrease in violations
• UK: 10% decrease in violations
• EMEA Has Highest Overall Fraud Rate – In EMEA, post-bid fraud/SIVT (sophisticated invalid traffic) violations decreased 19% YoY, but the region has the highest fraud rate overall. Fraud in EMEA is largely driven by data centre traffic (in which fraudsters may spoof server-side ad insertion inventory) and site fraud. Both app fraud and bot fraud are down, comprising just 3% and 2% of fraud respectively.
• Viewability Rates Rise – In EMEA, display viewability increased 7% YoY, and is now 12% higher than it was just two years earlier. Although video viewability decreased by 3% YoY in EMEA it remains strong at 75%.

Global Snapshot: 

• CTV & Mobile Video Surge – The smallest and largest screens drive video growth as CTV video impressions increased 87% in volume YoY and Mobile Web Video Impressions increased 104% in volume YoY.
• Keyword Blocking is Down –  Keywords make up a smaller share of overall suitability violations, falling from 13% in May 2020 to 7% in April 2021. These changes show a maturing industry, moving beyond keywords to embrace inclusion/exclusion lists, page exception lists and contextual content categories at DV’s guidance.
• Half a Million Fraudulent Devices Daily – Fraud remains a problem as DV detects 500,000 new fraudulent devices every day. Mobile app video was particularly plagued, with fraud rising nearly 50% YoY.
• Video Often Seen But Not Heard – Audibility remains a challenge, with fewer than 15% of all video ads both audible and in-view on completion (AVOC).
• Pandemic’s Impact on Performance – In its Global Insights Report, DV has also created an “Attention Index,” evaluating ad “Attention” based on “engagement” and “exposure.” Engagement measures how users interact with ads and exposure quantifies how the ad is displayed on the page. Notably, while campaigns in travel and media and sports had smaller buys, decreasing exposure, both still drove better-than-average consumer engagement. Similarly, entertainment advertisers saw higher engagement YoY, despite decreased engagement.

“Insights into attention metrics and granular brand suitability tools are essential for advertisers seeking to gain control of campaign optimisation and boost their overall brand safety,” concluded Bukhari.

See the full report findings here.