Integral Ad Science, which provides brands and agencies with actionable media evaluation intelligence and technology, has released its Media Quality Report for Q1 2015. The report, based on the analysis of hundreds of billions of impressions each quarter, introduces the first segmented international media quality metrics; and reveals the industry’s first mobile in-app viewability benchmark.

In the first mobile in-app advertising metric, Integral Ad Science found only 81 per cent of in-app ads were viewable, a surprising finding in a new medium where it is generally assumed that advertising is 100 per cent viewable. As an industry-first mobile stat, the company said it shows the critical need to develop mobile standards, something it is working on with industry bodies. There are several reasons why some in-app ads are not seen, the company says, including some SDKs preloading ads which may never be seen by the user, and some SDKs not supporting the viewability method within MRAID.

“Integral Ad Science is continuing to report on important media quality metrics to provide transparency into the health of the advertising industry,” said CEO Scott Knoll. “The addition of the mobile in-app viewability metric shows the industry that it is not safe practice to assume that ads are in view, no matter what platform. Across the industry, we should continue to work together towards the creation of meaningful standards.”

The Q1 2015 report offers the first segmented international media quality benchmarks for online ad fraud, brand risk and viewability for the UK, Germany, France and Australia.
The inaugural country research shows that media quality is a global issue. The UK has the best viewability figure at 51.8 per cent; brand risk at 11.1 per cent in the UK is slightly above France, the lowest of the four countries at 10.6 per cent; and online ad fraud at 12.9 per cent in the UK is higher than Germany, France and Australia this quarter.

“These are the first metrics broken down by country, which gives brands, agencies and publishers granular insight into online media quality,” said Integral Ad Science
UK managing director, Niall Hogan. “Last week, a national newspaper highlighted several top UK advertisers were caught out as their brands appeared alongside inappropriate content. While they may have had content verification in place, we know many choose the basic monitoring tool and do not utilise full blocking capabilities. It highlights that advertisers need to prioritise using media quality intelligence to mitigate ad fraud, brand risk and improve viewability in a holistic digital media strategy.”

The Media Quality Report for Q1 2015 shows an increase in video viewability from the previous quarter of just under three per cent to 41.8 per cent. For the second successive quarter, this increase impacted positively on completion rates while in view, which also rose from 26 per cent to 33.1 per cent. Video ad fraud, however, increased negatively from 10 per cent in Q4 2014 to 14 per cent in Q1 2015.

You can access the full report here.