India makes strides in combating Ad Fraud: DV reports 36% reduction

DoubleVerify (DV), a leading provider of digital media measurement and data analytics, released its annual DV Global Insights: 2024 Trends Report on June 18, 2024. This report offers insights into global advertising trends, with a specific focus on the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and India.

The report highlights a significant positive development in India: a 36% reduction in ad fraud rates year-over-year. This decrease is attributed to the growing adoption of ad verification tools by Indian businesses.

However, the report also cautions that ad fraud remains a global challenge. According to DV's research, new fraudulent schemes and techniques are constantly emerging. In 2023 alone, the DV Fraud Lab identified a 23% increase in new global fraud variants compared to the previous year.

The report defines ad fraud (and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic or SIVT) as a variety of activities including:

• Bot fraud: Using automated software programs (bots) to mimic human activity and generate fake ad impressions.
• Site fraud: Employing websites specifically designed to inflate ad traffic metrics illegitimately.
• App fraud: Fraudulent activity within mobile apps that generates fake ad impressions.
• Hijacked devices: Taking control of devices without user consent to display ads.
• Non-human data center traffic: Routing ad traffic through data centers instead of real devices.
• Injected ad events: Artificially inserting ad events into websites or apps to inflate impressions.

These fraudulent activities can significantly harm businesses by generating misleading data and inflating advertising costs.

The report also explores other key digital advertising trends in the APAC region, including:

• The Rise of AI: 60% of APAC marketers believe that AI-powered campaign optimization will have the most significant positive impact on media quality. However, the report acknowledges the challenges posed by Generative AI (Gen AI) in creating fraudulent ad impressions and MFA (made-for-advertising) content.
• The Importance of Attention Measurement: Attention metrics are increasingly valued by media buyers, with the APAC region demonstrating the highest overall attention levels. India performs exactly at the regional benchmark according to the report's Attention Index.
• Evolving Media Landscape: While mobile channels remain dominant in APAC, accounting for over 70% of total impressions, emerging media like CTV (connected TV) are gaining traction. However, CTV currently exhibits the highest fraud rates within the APAC region despite an 85% decrease year-over-year.
• Brand Safety Concerns: The report acknowledges the challenges of navigating brand safety, particularly during political cycles. For instance, inflammatory political news content doubled in India before the 2022 Presidential election.
• Retail Media Networks (RMNs): The report highlights the potential of RMNs, which offer higher media quality compared to traditional channels. According to the study, RMNs boast brand suitability rates 10% lower and ad fraud rates nearly 31% lower than global benchmarks.

The DV Global Insights report provides data and insights for businesses and marketers navigating the complex world of digital advertising. By understanding the evolving trends and challenges, businesses can make informed decisions to optimize their advertising campaigns, maximize return on investment (ROI), and safeguard brand reputation.