DoubleVerify expands Microsoft Advertising measurement and automation tools

DoubleVerify expanded its integration with Microsoft Advertising on October 15, 2025, extending measurement coverage to include Audience ads across Microsoft properties and publisher partners. The enhancement brings support for in-market audiences and introduces DV Campaign Automator for automated campaign trafficking.

The expansion allows advertisers to measure Audience ads—display, native, and video formats powered by Microsoft AI—across Microsoft-owned properties including MSN, Outlook, and Microsoft Casual Games. Campaigns leveraging Microsoft's proprietary in-market audience data can now access DoubleVerify's verification capabilities. These measurement tools encompass brand suitability, viewability, and invalid traffic detection, all applicable to Audience ads inventory.

"We are excited to build on our successful integration with Microsoft Advertising and expand our measurement solutions across the platform's proprietary inventory and data," said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. "This release builds on DV's leadership in driving media effectiveness for advertisers, ensuring our clients can seamlessly measure campaign delivery, optimize their advertising efforts, and ultimately, drive superior business outcomes with Audience ads."

Automation addresses workflow complexity

DV Campaign Automator represents the other major component of this release. The tool streamlines campaign trafficking processes from creation through execution. Campaign creation, settings adjustments, tag management, billing, and reporting now flow through automated workflows rather than manual touchpoints. For Audience ads customers specifically, this automation ensures faster campaign execution while maintaining complete verification coverage.

The automation addresses documented industry challenges. DoubleVerify's 2025 research showed marketers spend 10 hours and 12 minutes weekly on routine campaign optimization tasks including bid modifications, budget allocations, and viewability threshold adjustments. Manual campaign optimization consumes 26% of work time for digital advertising professionals, costing North American agencies $17,000 annually per employee.

Campaign automation has become increasingly critical as Microsoft consolidated its bidding strategies in August 2025. The platform eliminated Target CPA and Target ROAS as separate bidding strategies, instead incorporating them as optional goals within Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value campaigns. These changes increased the importance of efficient campaign management tools that can handle consolidated workflows.

Microsoft ecosystem integration

Danielle McMeekin, VP of Global Performance Sales at Microsoft Advertising, emphasized the collaborative nature of the expansion. "The extension of our integration with DoubleVerify, which includes enhanced third-party measurement and new trafficking capabilities, allows us to deliver additional insights to our shared clients for more successful campaigns," McMeekin said. "By integrating DoubleVerify's capabilities, our clients benefit from a high level of transparency and effectiveness in their digital advertising."

Microsoft's Audience ads extend beyond owned properties to third-party publishers, offering extensive coverage across the web. The solution targets high-intent audiences using Microsoft AI, trusted data, and visual formats that emphasize performance with transparency and control. This approach contrasts with walled garden environments where verification capabilities face technical constraints.

Advertisers access campaign metrics through DV Pinnacle, DoubleVerify's unified service and analytics platform. The integration creates a seamless workflow for clients managing digital advertising investments across multiple platforms. Campaign data flows between Microsoft Advertising and DoubleVerify's measurement infrastructure without requiring separate reporting interfaces.

Platform evolution context

The announcement positions DoubleVerify's expansion within its broader platform development trajectory. The company's media verification products operate on the DV Media AdVantage Platform (MAP), a framework that integrates core verification, AI-powered optimization, and outcome measurement capabilities. MAP represents DoubleVerify's transformation from media verification provider to comprehensive media effectiveness platform.

This transformation responds to demands for transparency, efficiency, and accountability in digital advertising environments. DoubleVerify's July 2025 Global Insights report documented a 15% year-over-year decrease in brand suitability violations in North America, achieving a 4.6% violation rate—the lowest globally. However, the same period saw a 101% surge in bot fraud, particularly affecting mobile app video advertisements.

The company extended brand suitability measurement to Meta Threads on the same day as the Microsoft announcement, demonstrating parallel expansion across social and search platforms. Earlier in 2025, DoubleVerify launched pre-bid video controls for TikTok in April and expanded video ad measurement to Spotify Ads Manager in October 2024.

Technical implementation details

The integration requires no additional technical setup beyond existing Microsoft Advertising account configurations. Advertisers with active Microsoft Advertising accounts can activate DoubleVerify's measurement capabilities for Audience ads campaigns through DV Pinnacle's interface. The system automatically applies brand suitability, viewability, and invalid traffic verification to eligible campaigns once enabled.

DV Campaign Automator functions as a layer between advertiser workflow systems and Microsoft Advertising's campaign management infrastructure. The tool handles campaign creation parameters, tag implementation, billing reconciliation, and performance reporting through programmatic connections. This eliminates repetitive manual processes that historically caused delays between campaign approval and launch execution.

Microsoft's Audience ads infrastructure supports the integration through standard API connections. Campaign data flows between Microsoft's ad serving systems and DoubleVerify's verification endpoints in near real-time. This architecture enables immediate detection of brand suitability violations or invalid traffic patterns during active campaigns rather than post-campaign analysis.

Market implications

Third-party verification capabilities face varying levels of access across digital advertising platforms. Walled garden environments operated by Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon restrict access to user information necessary for comprehensive bot detection. DoubleVerify's integration with Microsoft Advertising provides more extensive measurement capabilities than typically available in closed platform ecosystems.

The expansion matters for agencies and brands managing campaigns across multiple platforms. Consistent verification standards across Microsoft's inventory enable more accurate cross-platform performance comparisons. Advertisers can apply uniform brand suitability criteria whether campaigns run on search, display, or audience network placements.

Campaign automation addresses operational bottlenecks that scale with campaign complexity. Microsoft's Performance Max campaigns demonstrated similar automation benefits when launched globally in March 2024, with advertisers reporting increased conversions and efficient costs. DV Campaign Automator extends automation benefits to Audience ads inventory specifically.

The verification and automation combination addresses separate but related advertiser concerns. Verification tools ensure media quality meets brand standards. Automation tools reduce the operational overhead of maintaining those standards across numerous campaigns. Together, they enable larger-scale campaign management without proportional increases in manual oversight.

Industry verification landscape

DoubleVerify operates in a competitive verification market alongside Integral Ad Science, Nielsen, and other measurement providers. The company faced legal challenges in May 2025 when the Electrical Workers Pension Fund filed a federal class action lawsuit alleging securities violations. Research from Adalytics claimed DoubleVerify's fraud protection services were ineffective, with customers regularly billed for ad impressions served to declared bots.

These legal challenges emerged as DoubleVerify's stock price declined from peaks above $39 to $13.90 by February 2025. The company disclosed that advertising spending was shifting toward closed platforms where its services face technical limitations. Senator Mark Warner contacted the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice expressing concerns over systematic customer overcharging allegations.

Despite legal challenges, DoubleVerify continued product development throughout 2025. The company launched DV Authentic AdVantage in June, combining media quality verification with campaign optimization for walled garden environments. DoubleVerify also introduced tiered Made for Advertising categories in March 2024, addressing the surge in AI-generated content sites designed primarily for ad revenue generation.

The verification industry faces fundamental questions about measurement accuracy in increasingly automated advertising environments. Ad fraud exceeds $50 billion globally according to World Federation of Advertisers estimates, representing the second-largest income source for organized crime after drug trafficking. This fraud predominantly occurs in environments where verification tools face access restrictions or technical limitations.

Microsoft platform developments

Microsoft Advertising has pursued multiple automation and measurement initiatives parallel to the DoubleVerify integration. The platform integrated with Mediaocean's Prisma in December 2024 for automated order insertion. Enhanced website exclusion tools launched in August 2025, providing advertisers with greater control over ad placement.

Search Ads 360 integrated Microsoft automated bidding in August 2024, enabling cross-platform bid optimization. These developments demonstrate Microsoft's focus on automation while maintaining advertiser control over campaign parameters. The DoubleVerify expansion fits within this broader platform strategy of combining automation efficiency with transparency requirements.

Audience ads represent Microsoft's effort to compete with social platform advertising capabilities while maintaining search platform strengths. The format combines audience targeting sophistication with Microsoft's first-party data assets. Adding third-party verification addresses advertiser concerns about measurement consistency across platform types.

Timeline

• March 2024 - DoubleVerify launches tiered Made for Advertising categories for brand safety
• April 2025 - DoubleVerify launches pre-bid video controls for TikTok
• May 2025 - Class action lawsuit filed against DoubleVerify alleging fraud detection failures
• June 2025 - DoubleVerify unveils DV Authentic AdVantage for walled garden optimization
• July 2025 - DoubleVerify releases Global Insights report showing 101% surge in bot fraud
• August 2025 - DoubleVerify study reveals marketers spend 10 hours weekly on manual campaign tasks
• October 15, 2025 - DoubleVerify expands Microsoft Advertising measurement to include Audience ads and launches DV Campaign Automator
• October 15, 2025 - DoubleVerify extends brand suitability tools to Meta Threads
• October 16, 2024 - DoubleVerify expands video ad measurement to Spotify Ads Manager

Summary

Who: DoubleVerify Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DV), a media effectiveness platform, in partnership with Microsoft Advertising. Key executives include Mark Zagorski (CEO of DoubleVerify) and Danielle McMeekin (VP of Global Performance Sales at Microsoft Advertising).

What: DoubleVerify expanded its integration with Microsoft Advertising to include measurement coverage for Audience ads across Microsoft properties and publisher partners, with support for in-market audiences. The company also launched DV Campaign Automator to streamline campaign trafficking processes from creation through reporting for brands and agencies using Audience ads.

When: The announcement occurred on October 15, 2025. The capabilities became available to advertisers immediately following the announcement through DV Pinnacle platform access.

Where: The expansion covers Microsoft properties including MSN, Outlook, and Microsoft Casual Games, as well as third-party publisher partners within Microsoft's Audience network. Measurement capabilities extend globally wherever Microsoft Advertising operates.

Why: The expansion addresses advertiser demands for transparency and efficiency in campaign management across proprietary platform inventory. Manual campaign optimization consumes substantial resources, with marketers spending over 10 hours weekly on routine tasks. The integration enables consistent measurement standards across Microsoft's inventory while reducing operational overhead through automation, supporting DoubleVerify's transformation from verification provider to comprehensive media effectiveness platform.