MUMBAI, 31 March 2022: Today, Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS), a global leader in digital media quality, released the sixteenth edition of the Media Quality Report, providing transparency into the performance and quality of Indian digital media, alongside global comparisons. The latest Media Quality Report highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and in-app advertising.
Display environments were the safest for advertisers in India.
Brand risk rates dipped to historically low levels in H2 2021, indicating brands’ increased efforts to optimise ad placements toward contextually relevant content. Worldwide brand risk averaged less than 3% across all environments and formats. Display formats in India were the safest for advertisers worldwide, with brand risk levels on desktop display at 0.3%, down by 1.5 percentage points (pp) year-on-year (YoY). While mobile web display brand risk fell to 0.6% in H2 2021, down by 2.1 pp, the worldwide average was 2.0%. Programmatically transacted display ads showed higher brand risk in India than publisher direct inventory at 0.6% on desktop and 0.9% on mobile web environments. This data suggests that the market is actively using solutions to protect brand reputation and place ads in suitable environments.
Viewability increased across all environments in India
Digital display ads in India had higher viewability rates YoY, almost touching 60% viewability across all environments in H2 2021. Viewability increases at the closing end of 2021 would likely spell great opportunities for advertisers as consumers increase their time spent with digital media in 2022. Desktop display viewability in India rose to 59.5%, a 4.3 pp increase YoY. In comparison, the worldwide average remained at 70.1%.
India’s viewability on mobile web display was at 59.0%, an increase of 3.2% pp YoY, while the viewability on mobile app display was 60.3%.
Optimised ad fraud rates remained stable in India
Global ad fraud rates rose across all formats and environments in H2 2021. However, in India,
desktop display saw a marginal decrease in fraud rates (1.1%) down 0.3pp YoY, while mobile web display fraud rates remained the same at 0.3% YoY. The worldwide non-optimised fraud rate for desktop display was 10.7% and 6.3% on mobile web display, clearly indicating that using fraud mitigation strategies can reduce ad fraud risks and reduce ad wastage significantly.
Saurabh Khattar, Commercial Lead India, IAS, said, “India saw an increase in key media quality benchmarks in H2 2021. This performance is likely a testament to the sophisticated local ecosystem of advertisers, publishers, and industry bodies championing initiatives such as ads.txt and the IAS-built Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK). Advertisers must continue to prioritise quality impressions to see sustained gains in digital media campaigns and ensure that the intended consumers see their ads in brand-safe and suitable environments.”
Integral Ad Science’s Media Quality Report – 16th Edition highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and in-app advertising. It analysed trillions of global data impressions from ad campaigns that ran between 1st July to 31st December, 2021. The full report can be viewed here
