Mobile web video witnesses 73.7% viewability worldwide: IAS Report

Integral Ad Science has released its Media Quality Report for H2 2020, providing transparency into the performance and quality of digital media across the APAC region, alongside global comparisons. Integral Ad Science’s H2 2020 MQR highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and in-app advertising.

The report said that in H2 2020, global desktop video viewability witnessed a marginal decrease, and remained one of the most viewable formats, trailing only mobile web video. Mobile web video viewability increased by more than two percentage points, becoming the most viewable format worldwide at 73.7 per cent. India displayed a 55.2 per cent viewability with regard to desktop display and a 55.8 per cent with regard to mobile web display.

Viewability rose most in mobile app display environments, reaching a 72.1 per cent worldwide average. Australia was the only APAC market that saw mobile app display viewability rise from 69.9 per cent in H2 2019 to 73 per cent in H2 2020, an increase of 3.1 pp. New Zealand reported a drastic reduction in mobile app display viewability, down 12.4 pp to 49.8 per cent in H2 2020; the lowest globally.

Average time-in-view for display campaigns remained relatively unchanged across web environments worldwide. In H2 2020, time-in-view for desktop display increased by nearly half a second to reach 23.2s, with Argentina, Indonesia and Mexico leading the rankings.

The largest time-in-view decline occurred in mobile app display environments. Mobile app display ads remained in-view 5.2s less on average worldwide, which is 21 per cent less compared to H2 2019. Both programmatic and publisher direct inventory drove the decrease, with ads in these environments remaining in-view 6.2s and 3.3s less, respectively. India registered a time-in-view of 26.6s with regard to desktop display and 17.09s with regard to mobile web display. The mobile app display for India showed a 16.71s time-in-view.

In H2 2020, global ad fraud rates improved overall, the report further said. In fact, optimised-against-ad-fraud levels dropped across all devices and environments reported. The reductions ensured average ad fraud rates stayed below 1.0 per cent in all environments.

At the country level, India witnessed the ad fraud level to be 1.4 per cent for desktop environments. However, Japan and Australia were the only markets to witness significant increases in ad fraud rates. Japan experienced increases in optimised-against-ad- fraud rates for display impressions in both desktop and mobile web environments. Australia also witnessed an increase, particularly for desktop video, which saw an optimised-against-ad-fraud rate of 1.6 per cent, twice the average rate a year earlier.

Video impressions witnessed increased brand risk, a trend which tended to correlate to video ad impression volumes throughout the second half of the year. In other words, the increase indicates a correlation between brand risk and increased video consumption as a result of consumer stay-at-home behaviours. Adult content was the primary driver of increased brand risk across all formats worldwide, often followed by hate speech.

India witnessed a total brand risk of 1.8 per cent on desktop display and a 2.8 per cent on mobile web display. Indonesia registered the highest brand risk globally on desktop display and mobile web display.

Brand risk on desktop display in Indonesia reached 8.2 per cent in H2 2020, the highest globally, while the worldwide average remained unchanged at 4.4 per cent when compared to H2 2019. Other APAC markets such as Japan recorded an increase of 2.4 percentage points to 5.6 per cent, and Singapore 2.4 per cent.

For mobile web display, the brand risk in Indonesia was reported at 16 per cent in H2 2020, two and a half times higher than the worldwide average of 5.8 per cent. Singapore and Vietnam for the same period reported lower brand risk levels of 3.5 per cent and 3.0 per cent respectively, whereas Japan and Australia increased 2.8 pp (to 10.4 pe cent) and 1.7 pp (to 4.2 per cent) respectively.

Connected TV (CTV) tops the video viewability ranking worldwide. CTV viewability reached 93.3 per cent globally and was closely followed by mobile app video, another debut metric, at 92.6 per cent in H2 2020. Video ads running in browser environments trailed at a distance, with viewability rates averaging over 73 per cent in desktop and mobile– viewability rates for all video formats stood above display in any environment.

Laura Quigley, senior vice president APAC Integral Ad Science, said, “We’ve measured high levels of brand risk in APAC, especially Indonesia, and we encourage clients to not just monitor but optimise away from unsuitable environments that don’t meet their brand values. Some advertisers in APAC continued to run their advertising adjacent to coronavirus content whereas some withdrew for a short period. As the situation evolved, marketers adopted a more nuanced approach, not just blocking but also considering the context and sentiment of the adjacent content to drive audience engagement in high-quality, contextually suitable environments. Programmatic pre-bid targeting facilitates buying quality impressions and reducing wastage. As we emerge from the challenges of 2020, marketers must remember to regularly update their brand suitability settings. There is a strong pivot in the market towards brand suitability and contextual targeting is a viable, privacy-compliant solution for driving efficiencies, engagement, and ROI.”