• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, April 4, 2012

DoubleVerify released its 2H 2011 Trust Index study that analyzes and provides insights on the state of the industry for ad verification and non-compliance reporting.

The second half of 2011 saw a greater awareness of verification and positive impact on the ad-serving ecosystem. The findings show the impact of the different aspects of comprehensive verification -- blocking high-severity incidents, ongoing verification, and weekly remediation work together to achieve high performance and safety for brand campaigns.

Oren Netzer, CEO of DoubleVerify, says this is the first time the report shows that the DoubleVerify Effect, which makes the publisher aware that the campaign is being verified,  reduces noncompliance by 21% on average when verification is applied to the campaign even before any reports are sent to the media seller.

Netzer said non-compliance doesn't remain constant.  More pressure on inventory makes noncompliance rates jump, he explains. During the end of the month when the ad network and publisher need to deliver more ad impressions for advertisers, but they don't have the available inventory, so many times they source inventory from other networks. The act of turning to alternative sources that may not have strict policies can cause  non-compliance rates to increase,

The study also analyzes verification plans, which includes eliminating incidents through blocking, reporting, and active remediation. Netzer said blocking can reduce noncompliance by more than 90%.  Of course he believes that -- the company offers a product called BrandShield Redirect to support his thesis.

As for remediation, the process of proactively correcting issues that arise during a verification campaign can lessen the burden for re-trafficking. Campaigns where DoubleVerify performed weekly remediation show a 46% improvement in average rate of noncompliance during campaigns that DoubleVerify provided reporting alone.

The study notes verification and remediation help achieve a higher rate of compliance and more predictable compliance performance. It states that reporting alone improves the weekly average noncompliance rate by 28% and reduces variability by 86% on average. Campaign remediation shows a 19% greater decline in average noncompliance than campaigns using reporting alone, along with an additional 8% reduction in variability.

As part of the Trust Index research, DoubleVerify analyzed campaigns across more than 30 platforms and 150 networks and identified the most compliant ad networks from July to December 2011. Those networks in alphabetical order include 24/7 Real Media, aCerno, AudienceScience, Epic Marketplace, Microsoft Media Network, RocketFuel, Specific Media, ValueClick, and Yahoo! Network Plus and interclick from Yahoo. Advertising platforms that were most compliant include Cadreon, a part of the Mediabrands Audience Platform, MediaMath, and Xaxis.