IAS’S 20TH MEDIA QUALITY REPORT REVEALS AD FRAUD IS ON THE RISE, BUT OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES PROTECT BUDGETS AND DELIVER HIGHER PERFORMANCE

Sophisticated ad fraud initiatives now account for 15x higher fraud rates than when no pre-bid fraud protection is in place 

Desktop video viewability reaches record high of 83.9%, reflecting video’s continually increasing impact on media consumption

Integral Ad Science, a leading global media measurement and optimization platform, today released its milestone 20th edition of its Media Quality Report (MQR). Capturing insights from over 280 billion digital interactions daily across the globe, the MQR provides advertisers and publishers with vital benchmarks across display and video ad formats on desktop, mobile web, mobile app, and connected TV (CTV) environments to measure the quality and effectiveness of their digital media campaigns and inventory.

This year’s report spotlights the evolving dynamics of the digital advertising landscape with a focus on the open web. Key highlights include a significant rise in non-optimized ad fraud rates, an increase in the proportion of brand risk* attributed to offensive language and hate speech in these environments, and a stabilization of viewability rates as marketers shift toward new metrics such as attention.

“As digital media complexity accelerates, IAS remains steadfast in empowering our partners with the transparency, precision, and protection they need to succeed,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO of IAS. “The 20th edition of the MQR underscores the critical need for proactive media quality strategies to ensure marketers can drive performance while protecting their brands from the evolving and multi-faceted risks in the programmatic advertising landscape.”

Key global findings from the 20th edition MQR:

• • Ad fraud rates 15x higher for non-optimized campaigns
  The MQR reveals that fraud rates for campaigns lacking fraud mitigation strategies (non-optimized) rose by 19.0% year-over-year – reaching a four-year high of 10.9% by the end of 2024. The rate of fraud in non-optimized campaigns was 15x higher than those campaigns that utilised anti-fraud technologies. Despite the increasing sophistication of fraudulent actors, campaigns that implemented fraud protection remained largely shielded, with optimized campaign fraud rates decreasing by 9.8% year-over-year globally to a steady 0.7%. 

• • Offensive language, controversial content, and hate speech on the rise
  While global brand risk overall decreased by 10.6% from 2023 (and down 39% from 2021) to a record low of 1.5%, the nature of brand risk is shifting. The share of content flagged for offensive language, controversial content, and hate speech on the open web increased to the highest levels seen since 2020. Globally, the share of offensive content rose by 72% year-over-year​ highlighting the evolving nature of online risk.
• • Global viewability rates stabilize
  After years of consistent increases, global viewability rates plateaued in 2024, rising only 1.6% year-over-year. Notably, desktop video viewability increased by 5.4% to achieve a record high of 83.9%, reflecting continued growth in digital video consumption across every channel – both emerging and more traditional​. While overall viewability remains high, marketers are beginning to prioritize additional measures of ad effectiveness, such as attention. By considering situational factors such as an ad’s environment, alongside interactions like clicks or eye movements, attention can approximate the extent to which impressions drive brand messaging allowing advertisers to optimize towards business results

U.S. highlights from the MQR:

• • Ad fraud in the United States followed the worldwide trends, optimized ad fraud levels stayed the same year-on-year for mobile web video (.5%), while desktop display decreased from 2.2% to 1.6%, desktop video dropped from 1.6% to 1.1% and mobile web display fell from .8% to .7%. 

• • Viewability rates for the United States saw mobile app display increasing from 83.5% in 2023 to 86.8% in 2024 – performing above the worldwide average of 74.2%. Mobile web video also increased from 74.2% in 2023 to 79.4% in 2024.
• • Time-in-view across the United States came in lower than worldwide averages. Desktop display reduced from 19.88 seconds in 2023 to 16.57 seconds in 2024 – lower than the worldwide duration of 19.17 seconds.
• • Brand risk: The rate of brand risk flagged content in the United States was higher than worldwide averages across all environments – desktop display (1.5%), desktop video (1.5%), mobile web display (2.4%), and mobile web video (2.9%).

• • Looking at specific risk categories, the United States has the second highest share of brand risk relating to violence on mobile web video (64.1%) across the globe, coming in above the worldwide average of 57.3%.

In its 20th edition, the MQR continues to serve as the trusted global standard for actionable digital media quality insights. As the digital ecosystem evolves rapidly with advancements in AI, changing consumer behaviors, as well as a shift towards performance-driven strategies, these insights continue to help advertisers, publishers, and platforms navigate these challenges and achieve superior results. IAS’s research team analyzed the more than 280 billion digital interactions captured daily by IAS at the impression level to create the Media Quality report.

Download the full Media Quality Report from IAS here.

Categorised in: Industry News, Member News

This post was written by Integral Ad Science