Ad fraud rates are staying roughly in line with previous years, according to the latest Integral Ad Science analysis, but viewability of ads is continuing to improve.
Now in its 18th edition, IAS comprised its Media Quality Report by analyzing hundreds of billions of global data events in 2022 at the impression level.
Last year, viewability improved across all regions, with APAC advancing the most, though the Americas maintained the highest viewability average of any region. Time-in-view, however, continued its multi-year decline across all regions, with averages at 15 seconds in the mobile web display format, where the majority of digital budgets are allocated worldwide.
Global ad fraud rates remained stable but, zooming in, ad fraud violations on desktop display and video lowered slightly in the Americas and increased in EMEA.
Global ad fraud rates have remained stable for campaigns that have been optimized against ad fraud, but remained historically high on desktop and historically low on mobile web. Fraud violations on desktop started to climb again in the second half of 2020 but eventually stabilized in late 2021. Mobile ad fraud rates dropped in the first half of 2020 and have stayed below pre-pandemic levels since then.
Viewability is defined by Media Ratings Council standards as a display ad impression where at least 50% of pixels are on screen for at least one second after the ad has rendered. A video ad impression is viewable if the ad is playing while at least 50% of the pixels are on screen for at least two continuous seconds.
Annual viewability averages around the world rose 9% between 2019 and 2022. The long-term upward trend has pushed average viewability levels to hover between 70% and 75% for several years, with the global average reaching 73.6% in the second half of 2022. The Americas experienced a modest rise in viewability, keeping the regional average higher than in any other region. APAC viewability improved the most of any region, reaching an average of 70.5%. while in EMEA, viewability improved by double digits pace to 71.5%.
Although viewability has been on the rise, annual time-in-view averages have declined since 2020 when a historical high of 18.4 seconds was registered. It has declined since then with an 8.5% reduction from 2019 to 16.43 seconds in the second half of 2022.
Although longer time-in-view is the strongest driver of incremental sales, IAS found that the time-in-view sweet spot to maximize return on ad spend is lower. The study found ads that remained in view for 11 seconds or more drove the highest percentage of incremental sales while ads that remained in-view between three and 10 seconds hit the sweet spot and were highest on the incremental index, driving additional sales and boosting return on ad spend, compared to both shorter and longer time-in-view ranges.
