Online media quality improved in the first quarter of the year compared to 2015, according to Integral Ad Science’s Q1 2016 UK Media Quality Report. More online ads were found to be in-view, whilst rates of ad fraud and risk to brand safety were at lower levels in Q1 2016 than during the four quarters of 2015.

The report is based on analysis of hundreds of billions of ad impressions each quarter. Is shows that for Viewability, 57 per cent of ads were in view (ads deemed in view as per Media Ratings Council standard); Ad Fraud – 5 per cent were fraudulent (the percentage of impressions that were identified with suspicious or bot activity); and Brand Risk was 7 per cent (the percentage of impressions found adjacent to content that poses a significant brand safety risk).

For the first time, the report also includes Ad Clutter benchmarks, to help advertisers monitor their campaign’s share of voice on a web page. The new metric reflects whether ad impressions appeared on highly cluttered web pages, with six or more ads present on the page. Integral’s preliminary data reports that ad clutter is under control, with only 3.2 per cent of impressions seen during Q1 2016 being served on pages with six or more ads on the page.

“We have started the year on the right foot and the Q1 2016 report shows that work undertaken by UK industry bodies such as IAB and JICWEBS is helping raise awareness around media quality issues for online advertisers,” said Niall Hogan, UK MD at Integral Ad Science.
You can download the full report here.