• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 7, 2019

Why aren’t more media buyers embracing in-app advertising?

Forrester Consulting asked buyers that exact question and got some interesting answers.

Fear of fraud was the No. 1 concern among brand advertisers — 52% said fraud was a real concern, Forrester found. Forrester conducted the research on behalf of sell-side platform PubMatic.

Among agencies, viewability measurement challenges topped the list of concerns with in-app advertising, as 48% said this remained a big headache.

In its place, many agencies said they still feel more comfortable using traditional KPIs to measure their in-app campaigns.

Media buyers said they want more assistance from publishers and technology providers in addressing these concerns. Specifically, about half said they were looking for better fraud and viewability verification tools.

Forrester also suggested that publishers focus more intently on their targeting capabilities and quality.

Indeed, nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents cited targeting as the most important criterion for choosing an in-app publisher. More than over half identified inventory quality (58%) and a brand safe environment (56%) as top criteria.

As of October 2018, media buyers were allocating nearly half (45%) of their digital budgets to mobile -- which they split about evenly between mobile Web and in-app purchases -- Forrester found.