In this post, Pixalate examines the smartphone web publisher categories that had the highest ad fraud (IVT) rates across display and video advertising. For more insight, download the full Q2 2018 Programmatic Quality Report.
Key takeaways:
- The ‘Reference’ category (e.g. dictionaries, thesauruses, directories) has a display ad fraud rate of 43% for smartphone web programmatic advertising — highest among the 15 domain categories Pixalate tracked for this study
- The ‘News & Media’ category has a display ad fraud rate of 10.8% and a video ad fraud rate of 8.6%
- ‘Computers & Internet’ has the second-highest display ad fraud rate (13.5%) and the highest video ad fraud rate (13.3%)
‘Reference’ category has a display ad fraud rate of 43% on the mobile web
The ‘Reference’ category had an invalid traffic (IVT) rate of 42.9% in the time period we investigated for smartphone display programmatic advertising in North America. This was by far the highest IVT rate among all smartphone web publisher categories we examined.
- ‘Reference’ is over 3x more susceptible to display ad fraud
- The 42.9% display ad fraud rate for the ‘Reference’ publisher category was over 3x higher than the next-highest category in terms of ad fraud (Computers & Internet, 13.5%).
- ‘Entertainment’ has over 10% IVT
- The ‘Entertainment’ category had the third-highest display ad fraud rate among smartphone web publisher categories, at 10.8%.
'Computers & Internet', ‘News & Media’ have over 12% video ad fraud rate
The ‘Computers & Internet’ category had the highest programmatic video ad fraud rate (13.3%) among all smartphone web publisher categories in the time period we investigated.
- ‘News & Media’ has second-highest video ad fraud rate (12%)
- The News & Media publisher category had the second-highest video IVT rate (12%) and it accounted for just under half (47%) of all programmatic video ads transacted on smartphone web in the time period we studied.
- ‘Entertainment’ has slightly lower video ad fraud rate compared to display
- The ‘Entertainment’ category had a video ad fraud rate of 8.6%, which was slightly lower than the category’s display ad fraud rate of 10.8%.
Get more insights in our Q2 2018 Programmatic Quality Report
Pixalate analyzed billions of programmatic ad transactions to update you on the current state of invalid traffic (IVT) and ad fraud in the marketplace. To learn more about our methodology and insights, download your copy of the Q2 2018 Programmatic Quality Report here.
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