Pixalate’s Q3 2022 Social Media IVT Insights: Why Apps Like Twitter & YouTube Had 6x Higher IVT Rates on Web vs. Mobile Apps

Pixalate’s IVT Insights series continues as we highlight interesting topics and insights from our IVT Reports. 

This week: Pixalate published the Q3 2022 Social Media IVT Report last month, analyzing the distribution of Invalid Traffic (IVT) associated with social media websites and apps.

For several social media apps, the differences in IVT between their web platform and mobile app were stark. This post dives into that phenomenon.

Our Q3 2022 Social Media IVT Report found that, typically, web traffic on social media sites have higher IVT compared to mobile app traffic for the same social media platform. The differences were particularly pronounced on two social media platforms - Twitter and YouTube.

We believe that this discrepancy may be attributable to the following factors:

1. Easier access to the web versions vs. app version: pp versions require a download and install to use
2. Account creation: Users don’t have to create an account to access the web version in most cases compared to the app version, which makes it easier to build bots that click links on the web traffic
   1. In particular, Twitter and YouTube allow posts and profiles to have links, and have a much higher "anonymous browsability” compared to other platforms. 
3. Link proliferation: Other platforms - such as TikTok and Pinterest - actively limit the proliferation of links. They don’t allow links in comments, allow only one link on profiles, and in some cases, only allow links for accounts with over 10k followers.

For more details regarding Pixalate’s October 2022 Social Media IVT Benchmarks, download a free copy of the report here:

If you are interested in more insights like the above, across desktop, mobile and CTV devices,  please reach out to us using this contact form.

About Pixalate

Pixalate is the market-leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for Connected TV (CTV) and Mobile Advertising. We work 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value. Pixalate offers the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and CTV for better detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

This blog post published by Pixalate is available for informational purposes only and is not considered legal advice. By viewing this blog post, the reader understands and agrees that there is no attorney-client relationship between the reader and the blog publisher. The blog should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in the applicable jurisdiction(s), and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning any specific situation. The content of this blog post reflects Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees; and this blog post is not intended to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but instead, to report findings pertaining to mobile and Connected TV (CTV) apps.