1 in 3 Domains Fail Media Quality Thresholds, According to Ground-Breaking New Report from Picnic

Picnic, a leading quality media platform, has today (October 31st, 2024) launched significant findings in its newly released Media Quality Report 2024, powered by new PIQ intelligence. 

After reviewing over 30,000 domains (which accounts for almost all the ad traffic in the UK), the report reveals 2 startling insights into the state of media quality today, highlighting the growing challenges brands face in navigating the complex digital advertising ecosystem: 

• 1 in 3 domains fail to meet Picnic’s quality threshold for quality, indicating that these domains likely face issues related to content, user experience or security, which potentially impacts brand safety.
• 49% of domains are classified as high-risk, which means that brands running ads on these sites are likely to be badly perceived, which negatively impacts return on ad spend (ROAS).

Matthew Goldhill, CEO of Picnic, commented: "We’ve long known that quality was a concern, but the scale of the issue revealed by PIQ is eye-opening. The fact that 1 in 3 domains fails our quality thresholds shows just how much money is being wasted on ineffective, high-risk inventory. Our technology offers brands the ability to tackle this issue head-on and drive meaningful campaign results."

The report also identifies several industry challenges, such as the persistence of made-for-advertising (MFA) sites and the ongoing issue of misaligned metrics that prioritise vanity measures over actual business outcomes.

The findings suggest a shift towards prioritising quality inventory is key to combating ad waste, safeguarding brand reputation and is proven to drive better campaign outcomes for brands vs vanity metrics.

In addition to these findings, the report celebrates the Top 10 quality publishers for 2024, based on PIQ scores. These domains, including yahoo.com, nature.com, and engadget.com, have proven to provide premium environments for advertisers, helping them achieve better engagement and return on ad spend, whilst prioritising the user’s experience. 

For a full breakdown of findings and actionable insights, download The Media Quality Report 2024 here