Advertisers in APAC see lowest fraud in the world, but ad viewability needs improvements

Indonesia experienced the largest year-on-year decline at 60% in fraud rates to 0.5%, while Thailand and Vietnam had the lowest fraud rates in APAC at 0.3%.

“Now more than ever, global advertisers demand greater clarity and confidence in their digital investments,” said Mark Zagorski, chief executive officer of DoubleVerify.

“Brands want evidence of campaign quality and performance to maximize the effectiveness of online advertising. This report reflects the key challenges affecting the ad ecosystem globally – benchmarking the industry at large, while offering in-depth data and analytics to help brands optimize digital strategies.”

He added: “Attention metrics, such as time-in-view, audibility and other exposure and engagement indicators, offer advertisers deep insights into the efficacy of their ad campaigns. Ultimately, these data points allow advertisers to maximize their digital investments in order to drive desired outcomes.”

What did the report find?

• Mobile leads the way in APAC as 88% of DV verified video impressions in APAC are delivered through mobile devices, almost doubling that of the rest of the world at 45%. Quality in this channel has also improved.

• App fraud dropped from 12% to 3% of total fraud/SIVT, and mobile app video viewability increased by 26%, giving APAC an 80% mobile app video viewability rate.

• Over 60% of video ads in APAC are delivered to mobile apps, which has positively impacted overall video performance in audible and in-view on completion (AVOC). APAC’s overall AVOC rate at 34% across all environments is 2.5 times higher than the global average of 11%.

• APAC saw a significant 25% year-on-year decrease in brand suitability violations, dropping from 11.4% to 8.5%.

• This meant that it overtook both the EMEA (9.8%) and LATAM (9.2%), trailing only the mature North America market (6.9%). Malaysia had 61% decrease in violations, Philippines had 43% decrease in violations and Thailand had 36% decrease in violations.

• Despite APAC advertisers achieving a 4% year-on-year increase in display viewable rate at 62%, it still trails other regions. APAC performed better when it came to video viewability. After a 12% year-on-year increase, APAC’s video viewable rate was 74%, which is ahead of North America while still trailing EMEA and LATAM.

• Japan was an exception to the region, as it almost doubled its video viewable rates (94% year-on-year increase) to 82%.

• Globally, over the last year, the volume of video ad impressions has increased 56%. Mobile web, with 104% growth year-on-year, and CTV, with 87% growth year-on-year, have driven the trend.

• Advertisers have become more sophisticated in avoiding unsuitable content, as the global brand suitability violation rate thus far in 2021 is 12% lower as compared with the full year of 2020. Also, keywords make up a smaller share of overall violations year-on-year, falling from 13% to 7%.

• These changes show a maturing industry, moving beyond keywords alone to embrace inclusion/exclusion lists and contextual content categories at DV’s guidance.

• Despite the drop in APAC, fraud remains a problem globally as DV detects 500,000 new fraudulent devices every day. Mobile app video was particularly plagued, with fraud rising nearly 50% year-on-year.

• Audibility remains a challenge, especially on desktop and mobile web, with fewer than 15% of all video ads both audible and in-view on completion (AVOC).

• In its Global Insights Report, DV 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 year-on-year despite decreased engagement.