• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 10, 2011

Editor's note: The headline and content of this story has been changed. It incorrectly included Yahoo as one of the ad platforms deemed the most compliant by DoubleVerify. It also included B3 in that list and in the headline; B3 is supposed to be MIG's Zeus Advertising Platform.

Think all ad platforms are created equal? On the contrary! The most compliant ad platforms showed incidents of non-compliance just 3% of the time -- outperforming the lower tier of players by almost nine times, according to new research from digital media-verification company DoubleVerify.

To identify the top performers in the industry, DoubleVerify analyzed networks and platforms based on benchmarks of non-compliance, including: instances of ads served out of inclusion lists, in exclusion lists, alongside inappropriate content and ads served to international audiences.

For the second half of 2010, ad platforms deemed the most compliant by DoubleVerify included MIG's Zeus Advertising Platform, Invite Media and VivaKi's Audience on Demand.

Meanwhile, AOL's Advertising.com, AudienceScience, Casale Media, Dedicated Media, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Specific Media, Traffic Marketplace and ValueClick Media all made DoubleVerify's list of top-performing ad networks.

Comparing the first half of 2010 to the second, campaigns executed by the most compliant networks experienced less variability of non-compliance -- from 17% to 9% -- while the least compliant networks experienced greater variability -- from 29% to 38%.

"Compliance and accountability," according to Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify, represent "two pillars that are critical in building trust and growing online advertising."

According to Netzer, "a larger conversation is surfacing around how all online ad players have to work together with everyone's best interest in mind to make online advertising more trustworthy -- advertisers, ad technology companies and publishers."

DoubleVerify also studies instances of multiple ads from the same advertiser being served to consumers, as well as ads served alongside a competitor and below the digital fold.

Among top performers, the standard deviation of non-compliant campaigns decreased significantly from 30% during the first half of 2010 to 6% during the second half of the year.

The top-10-performing publishers saw an average of 0.01% of campaign impressions served internationally with a standard deviation of just 6%.

The bottom-performing publishers saw an average of 40% of campaign impressions served internationally, and an 18% standard deviation.