DoubleVerify reveals North America's ad quality improvements amid rising bot fraud

DoubleVerify released its 2025 Global Insights: North America Report on July 22, 2025, revealing a complex digital advertising landscape where significant improvements in brand suitability measurements contrast sharply with accelerating fraud concerns. The annual analysis examined more than one trillion impressions across desktop, mobile, and connected TV environments throughout 2024.

According to DoubleVerify's data, North America achieved the lowest brand suitability violation rate globally at 4.6%, representing a 15% decrease from the previous year. "In North America, the brand suitability violation rate decreased by 15% year-over-year, now standing at 4.6%, which is the lowest among all regions," the report stated. This improvement placed the region 11% below the global benchmark of 5.2%.

The company attributed this progress to extensive adoption of both pre-bid and post-bid protection services. "It also shows the maturity of brand suitability in the region, evidenced by high adoption of both pre- and post-bid services," DoubleVerify noted in the report.

However, the research simultaneously uncovered alarming trends in fraudulent traffic patterns. Bot fraud surged 101% year-over-year across North America, driven primarily by activity in the United States where rates increased 106%. Canada experienced a 35% decrease in bot fraud during the same period.

"Bot fraud has more than doubled in volume year-over-year, with a rate increase of 101%," the report documented. The fraud activity peaked during the second half of 2024, with quarter-over-quarter increases of 122% in Q3 and 234% in Q4 compared to prior year periods.

DoubleVerify researchers identified mobile app video advertisements as the primary target for fraudulent bot activity, though desktop display and connected TV video formats also experienced significant exposure. "It was at its highest in the U.S. in the second half of 2024 (year-over-year increases of 122% in Q3 and 234% in Q4) and can primarily be attributed to mobile app video ads," according to the analysis.

The study examined media waste calculations using an estimated $3 cost-per-mille methodology. Unprotected campaigns faced violation rates 2.2 times higher than those using DoubleVerify's protection services, with media waste totaling an estimated $336,000 per billion impressions for unprotected campaigns.

Consumer behavior research conducted among 3,000 North American respondents revealed increasing online content consumption patterns. The average consumer spends 3.8 hours daily consuming leisure content online, surpassing global averages. Canadian consumers averaged 3.9 hours while U.S. consumers spent 3.7 hours on digital content consumption.

"Online content consumption is on the rise in North America, with an average of 3.8 hours of leisure time spent per day consuming online content, surpassing the global average," the report stated. Social media engagement dominated this consumption, with 90% of consumers actively using social platforms and 23% expecting to increase their usage over the next 12 months.

Advertising effectiveness measurements highlighted social media's performance advantage over other channels. Among surveyed marketing professionals, 77% identified social media reels as outperforming campaign baselines, while 75% cited social feeds. Connected TV ranked third at 69%, followed by commerce media networks at 67%.

"In North America, social media reigns supreme in campaign performance, particularly social media reels and social feeds — which significantly outperform campaign baselines," according to the research findings.

The report documented concerning consumer responses to misaligned advertising placements. 45% of North American consumers indicated they would likely discontinue using brands whose advertisements appeared alongside false, objectionable, or inflammatory content. An additional 43% stated they would advise family members to avoid such brands.

"45% of consumers said that they were likely to stop using a brand or product if an ad is displayed alongside false, objectionable or inflammatory content," the study found. This trend appeared strongest in urban environments, with 49% of city center residents and 48% of urban consumers expressing willingness to abandon brands over content placement issues.

DoubleVerify's attention metrics revealed North America trailing global performance benchmarks. The region's Attention Index scored 96, four points below the global baseline of 100. This decline reflected challenges with small-sized in-app display advertisements, which scored 35% below global exposure standards.

"North America trailed the global average by 4%, largely due to the poor performance of small-sized in-app display ads, which had an Exposure Index 35% below the global index," the analysis indicated.

The measurement improvements reflected technical advances in connected TV environments. Video viewability rates increased 16% for CTV advertising, partially attributed to industry efforts improving Fully On-Screen certification standards. Publishers implementing proper pause functionality when televisions power down contributed to these gains.

"This increase is in part due to extensive industry-wide efforts to improve Fully On-Screen certification by publishers that were not previously pausing ad delivery when TV screens were turned off," the report explained.

Artificial intelligence-powered crawlers emerged as a growing source of invalid traffic. General Invalid Traffic increased 86% during the second half of 2024, with 16% attributed to AI-powered bots including GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and AppleBot. This growth pattern amplified concerns about measurement accuracy as AI tools proliferate.

"AI-powered crawlers and scrapers are now a growing cause of invalid traffic. General invalid traffic (GIVT) spiked 86% year-over-year in 2H, with 16% of GIVT stemming from bots linked to AI tools," according to the findings.

DoubleVerify's Smart Sentiment technology demonstrated effectiveness in expanding suitable inventory while maintaining brand safety standards. Within alcohol content categories, Smart Sentiment opened 49% more inventory on positive content compared to standard categorization, while reducing Unsuitable Category violations by 26%.

The research highlighted ongoing challenges with ad avoidance behaviors. 41% of North American consumers reported using ad-blocking software, underscoring demands for higher-quality advertising experiences. This statistic reinforced findings about consumer sensitivity to content alignment and placement quality.

Marketing budget allocation trends favored digital platforms over traditional media. Social media attracted 79% of marketer investments, while commerce media networks secured 62% adoption rates. Connected TV garnered 60% allocation, significantly exceeding traditional television's 47% and radio's 43%.

"Social media is the advertising channel of choice among marketers in North America, with commerce media networks and connected TV (CTV) a close second and third," the report noted. A substantial portion of marketers planned to begin using emerging channels, with 67% of U.S. marketers intending to start commerce media network advertising within the next year.

The analysis emphasized regional differences in brand safety performance. While the United States achieved a 17% decrease in brand suitability violations, Canada experienced a slight 3% increase. Mobile web display advertisements contributed disproportionately to violation rates, while Unsuitable Category violations comprised 62% of all brand suitability issues.

Viewability measurements showed modest improvements across both display and video formats. North America's Authentic Viewable Rate reached 71%, increasing 3% year-over-year and positioning 2% above global benchmarks. Display viewability maintained 73% rates while video achieved 79%.

This report matters significantly for the marketing community as digital advertising investments continue expanding while fraud threats evolve. Brand safety measures have become increasingly critical as AI-generated content proliferates and consumer expectations for content alignment intensify.

The findings arrive during a period of heightened scrutiny for verification providers, as industry participants demand greater transparency and effectiveness from fraud detection services. Marketing professionals must balance brand safety investments against the rapidly evolving threat landscape while maintaining campaign performance standards.

DoubleVerify commissioned Sapio Research to conduct surveys among 400 marketing professionals and 3,000 consumers across the United States and Canada during March 2025. The company's data analysis spanned January through December 2024, with attention metrics covering July through December 2024.

Timeline

• July 31, 2021 - DoubleVerify introduces Brand Suitability Tiers aligned with 4A's APB and WFA GARM standards
• November 1, 2023 - DoubleVerify expands measurement to Amazon Custom Audiences for Twitch inventory
• December 12, 2023 - DoubleVerify extends brand safety measurement to YouTube Shorts platform
• February 13, 2024 - DoubleVerify launches tiered Made for Advertising categories to address AI-generated content sites
• March 7, 2024 - DoubleVerify unveils enhanced MFA classification system with three-tier risk assessment
• September 6, 2024 - DoubleVerify introduces AI-powered Inflammatory Politics and News category for Meta platforms
• October 10, 2024 - DoubleVerify announces pre-screen avoidance solution for Meta alongside IAS content controls
• May 22, 2025 - Class action lawsuit filed against DoubleVerify alleging systematic fraud and ineffective bot detection
• June 25, 2025 - DoubleVerify uncovers ShadowBot scheme affecting 35 million spoofed mobile devices
• July 22, 2025 - DoubleVerify releases 2025 Global Insights: North America Report documenting brand safety improvements and rising bot fraud

Key Terms Explained

Brand Suitability: Brand suitability encompasses the alignment between advertising content and brand values, extending beyond basic safety measures to include contextual appropriateness. DoubleVerify's system evaluates content across 13 categories with three risk levels, analyzing both content type and topic to ensure advertisements appear in environments that support brand objectives. The 4.6% violation rate in North America represents the lowest global performance, reflecting sophisticated categorization systems that balance brand protection with campaign scale requirements.

Bot Fraud: Bot fraud involves sophisticated automated systems designed to simulate human behavior for the purpose of generating illegitimate advertising revenue. The 101% increase in North America demonstrates the evolving sophistication of fraudulent operations, with mobile app video advertisements serving as primary targets. Detection requires advanced analytics capable of identifying behavioral anomalies, device inconsistencies, and traffic patterns that deviate from genuine user engagement.

Viewability: Viewability measures whether advertisements meet technical standards for user visibility, requiring display ads to be 50% visible for one second and video ads to be 50% visible for two seconds. North America's 71% Authentic Viewable Rate reflects improvements in publisher practices and measurement technologies, particularly in connected TV environments where industry initiatives have addressed technical challenges with screen detection and ad delivery optimization.

Connected TV (CTV): Connected TV represents internet-enabled television viewing that allows for programmatic advertising delivery across streaming platforms and smart TV applications. The 16% improvement in CTV viewability stems from technical advances in Fully On-Screen certification, where publishers now properly pause ad delivery when screens are turned off, resulting in more accurate measurement and improved advertiser value.

Fraud Detection: Fraud detection encompasses the technological and analytical processes used to identify invalid traffic, bot activity, and other forms of digital advertising manipulation. DoubleVerify's protected campaigns demonstrate 2.2 times better performance than unprotected alternatives, highlighting the importance of pre-bid filtering, real-time monitoring, and post-campaign analysis in maintaining media quality standards.

Media Waste: Media waste quantifies the financial impact of advertising violations, calculated by multiplying total violations by estimated cost-per-mille values. The $336,000 per billion impressions figure for unprotected campaigns demonstrates the tangible business impact of inadequate verification measures, encompassing brand suitability violations, fraud exposure, viewability failures, and other quality issues that reduce campaign effectiveness.

Social Media: Social media platforms have emerged as dominant performance channels, with 77% of marketers reporting that reels outperform campaign baselines and 75% citing similar results for social feeds. The platform's effectiveness stems from native content formats, sophisticated targeting capabilities, and user engagement patterns that align with contemporary consumption behaviors, though brand safety considerations require careful content monitoring.

Invalid Traffic: Invalid Traffic encompasses both general invalid traffic (GIVT) from declared bots and sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) requiring advanced detection methods. The 86% increase in GIVT during 2024's second half, driven partially by AI-powered crawlers including GPTBot and ClaudeBot, illustrates how legitimate tools can inadvertently contribute to measurement challenges requiring sophisticated classification systems.

Attention Metrics: Attention metrics analyze user engagement through exposure and interaction measurements, evaluating factors including viewable time, share-of-screen, and user-initiated events. North America's 96 Attention Index, four points below the global benchmark, reflects challenges with small-sized in-app display advertisements and suggests opportunities for optimization in mature advertising markets through improved creative strategies and placement techniques.

Consumer Behavior: Consumer behavior analysis reveals increasing digital content consumption averaging 3.8 hours daily, alongside growing advertising resistance evidenced by 41% ad-blocker usage rates. The finding that 45% of consumers would discontinue brand relationships following inappropriate content association demonstrates the direct business impact of brand safety failures, reinforcing the importance of comprehensive content verification and monitoring systems.

Summary

Who: DoubleVerify, a digital advertising verification company, conducted the research alongside Sapio Research for survey components. The analysis examined data from marketing professionals, consumers, and advertising campaigns across North America.

What: The 2025 Global Insights: North America Report documented significant improvements in brand suitability measurements alongside alarming increases in bot fraud activity. Key findings included a 15% decrease in brand suitability violations to 4.6% and a 101% surge in bot fraud year-over-year.

When: The report was released on July 22, 2025, analyzing advertising data from January through December 2024. Consumer and marketer surveys were conducted in March 2025, while attention metrics covered July through December 2024.

Where: The research focused on North America, specifically the United States and Canada, examining digital advertising across desktop, mobile, and connected TV environments. Data collection spanned more than one trillion impressions throughout the region.

Why: The report addresses critical industry needs for transparency in digital advertising effectiveness and fraud prevention. With rising AI-generated content, evolving fraud techniques, and increasing consumer sensitivity to brand alignment, marketing professionals require comprehensive data to make informed media investment decisions and protect brand reputation.