DoubleVerify Analyzes Progress Against Non-Compliance; Finds Improvement From Leading Online Ad Networks, Publishers, Ad Exchanges and DSPs in 2H 2010
NEW YORK, NY – DoubleVerify, the pioneer and worldwide leader in online media verification and compliance, released findings from its 2H 2010 Trust Index. The report increases trust and accountability in the market by providing data around compliance and brand safety in online advertising. The most compliant ad networks from July to December 2010 were (listed alphabetically): AOL’s Advertising.com, AudienceScience, Casale Media, Dedicated Media, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Specific Media, Traffic Marketplace and ValueClick Media. Advertising platforms that were most compliant include: Invite Media, The MIG’s Zeus Advertising Platform and VivaKi’s Audience on Demand (AOD).
To identify the top performers in the industry, DoubleVerify analyzed networks and platforms based on benchmarks of non-compliance, including: instances of ads served out of inclusion lists, in exclusion lists, alongside inappropriate content and ads served to international audiences. Compared to 1H 2010, the 2H 2010 Trust Index noted marked improvement in incidents of non-compliance from the industry’s best-performing companies and continued inconsistency from the worst-performing companies. DoubleVerify examined metrics from hundreds of advertisers, thousands of verified campaigns and more than 150 billion advertising impressions to produce the bi-annual report, which can be downloaded at: http://www.doubleverify.com/resources/research/trust-index-2h-2010/
“The Trust Index is a measure of how our industry is performing when it comes to compliance and accountability — two pillars that are critical in building trust and growing online advertising,” said Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify. “The improvements in non-compliance rates we’ve seen so far are a reflection of the increased use of verification services that help vendors improve their campaign traffic quality. Meanwhile, a larger conversation is surfacing around how all online ad players have to work together with everyone’s best interest in mind to make online advertising more trustworthy — advertisers, ad technology companies and publishers. We believe the efforts we are undertaking this year will shape our industry for the future and ultimately bring more investment into the space overall.”
DoubleVerify utilized additional data points in its study of the overall progress against non-compliance, including: instances when multiple ads from the same advertiser were served, when ads were served alongside a competitor and when ads were served below the fold. The Trust Index also details the overall average of non-compliance as well as the standard deviation of each group of industry players, showing how much variation there is from the “average.” The high standard deviation suggests that there is still a lot of inconsistency in campaign compliance, where two campaigns being bought with the same media seller can yield very different compliance results.
Key findings from the 2H 2010 Trust Index include:
– In 2H 2010, the most compliant advertising networks had an average rate of 2 percent incidents of non-compliance. Compared to 1H 2010, the most compliant networks’ campaigns experienced less variability of non-compliance (from 17 to 9 percent standard deviation) while the least compliant networks experienced greater variability (from 29 to 38 percent). This shows consistency among the top performing networks.
– The most compliant ad platforms showed an average of 3 percent incidents of non-compliance — outperforming the lower tier of players by almost 9 times. In this top performing group, the standard deviation of non-compliant campaigns decreased significantly from 30 percent in 1H 2010 to 6 percent in 2H 2010.
– International targeting compliance varied greatly among publishers. The top 10 performing publishers saw an average of 0.01 percent of campaign impressions served internationally with a standard deviation of just 6 percent. The bottom performing publishers saw an average of 40 percent of campaign impressions served internationally and an 18 percent standard deviation.
DoubleVerify also analyzed how non-compliance on specific campaigns changed over time. Advertisers who worked with DoubleVerify to monitor, remediate and block non-compliant impressions witnessed a 67 percent decrease in inappropriate content and a 77 percent decrease in internationally targeted traffic (up from 72 percent in 1H 2010).
Additional highlights around advertising delivery norms include:
– 37 percent of ads on verified campaigns were served below the fold (compared to 44 percent in 1H 2010)
– 11 percent of advertising pages included multiple ads by the same advertiser (compared to 10 percent in 1H 2010)
– 5 percent of ads in verified campaigns were shown alongside a competitor’s ads (compared to 4 percent in 1H 2010)
Methodology
DoubleVerify used a robust set of data analysis tools to analyze online advertising campaign activity across more than 150 billion advertiser campaign impressions from July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010. Types of non-compliance analyzed include instances of ads served out of inclusion lists, in exclusion lists, alongside inappropriate content, multiple ads from the same advertiser, ads alongside a competitor, below the fold ads and ads served to international audiences. The data in the analysis was carefully normalized to the best of our ability. Advertising delivery providers were categorized into 3 main categories: Advertising Networks, Platforms (includes DSPs, ad exchanges and trading desks) and Publishers. Impression thresholds were applied to each group to ensure the highest level of accuracy.
About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the worldwide leader in online advertising verification and the top choice of marketers, agencies, ad networks and publishers looking to ensure brand safety, campaign transparency and regulatory compliance. DoubleVerify verifies more than 35 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of leading Fortune 500 marketers. DoubleVerify is headquartered in New York City, with engineering offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. Investors in DoubleVerify include Blumberg Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.
