ComScore: 'why non-human traffic matters to you'
A little of half of all ads (57 per cent) can be measured with an adequate degree of clarity, due to issues such as click-fraud negating ad tech vendor solutions, according to a ComScore report which analyses the effect of non-human traffic (NHT) on advertisers’ campaign results.
The study, entitled ‘NHT: Why it Matters and Why You Should Care’, attempts to demonstrate to advertisers how NHT can contaminate their entire campaign results, with the phenomena meaning that advertisers can only be sure that a little over half of all ads are hitting their ideal audiences.
ComScore is eager to point out that despite the market being flooded with ad tech companies providing competing solutions to solve issues around transparency, etc., not all viewability measurement will negate the impact of NHT, as issues around de-duplicating impressions can still cloud campaign reporting.
Duncan Trigg, ComScore’s vice president of advertising effectiveness, said: “NHT detection is imperative before calculating viewability, audience reach and calculating attribution. Our recent research shows that approximately 44 per cent of the top 100 display websites in the UK have sections above 5 per cent affected by NHT."
ComScore released the report today (14 September) as delegates across the world prepare to converge on Cologne for the annual instalment of the Dmexco conference series where the theme of the show is ‘Bridging Worlds’, and advertising technology, as well as marketers’ increasing use of data is set to play a prominent role.
Writing in an earlier piece for The Drum, Timur Yanall, ComScore's vice president of corporate development, noted the cost of NHT to those on the supply-side of the industry as well.
He said: “While digital ad sellers (sell-side exchanges and publishers) are often thought to benefit from increased inventory due to NHT, the consensus was that honest, high-quality publishers are clearly harmed by the issue of ad fraud and could benefit by differentiating their “certified” inventory from low quality un-certified inventory available on some exchanges.”