• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 20, 2020

Connected TV has become one of the fastest-growing digital media channels and one of the highest for fraud, according to data released Today. Since March 2019, DoubleVerify has identified 1,300 fraudulent CTV apps, with more than 60% found in 2020.

DoubleVerify also detected a 161% increase in fraudulent CTV traffic rates in the first quarter of 2020, compared with one year ago. While bot fraud accounted for 26% of fraud incidents overall, it was responsible for a 78% of fraud incidents on CTV, according to the DoubleVerify's 2020 Global Insights Report released this week.

The report, a benchmark on the state of media quality for global advertisers, addresses key issues that advertisers face today -- brand suitability, fraud, viewability and performance -- as they seek to maximize return on their digital investments. The report also offers a view on emerging trends, such as the rise in CTV fraud and increase in the rate of brand suitability incidents on mobile app inventory. Both may impact the way advertisers think about cross-channel marketing, targeting, and privacy.

Fraud typically follows ad spend, especially within emerging channels like CTV, where measurement technologies are not widely adopted and demand outstrips supply.

DoubleVerify also found that overall Brand Suitability Rate rose 14% YoY to 7.6%, driven by mobile apps.

While the Brand Suitability Incident Rate increased across all devices year-on-year, the increase was most notable on mobile app at more than 32%, but increases were also seen on mobile web at more than 19%, and desktop at more than 17%.

There’s good news in the report. Overall, viewability rates rose by 9% YoY, up from 58% to 63%, with improvements seen across all devices and media types.

Display Viewability Rates matched the overall rates, and the Video Viewable Rate increased 8% from 62% to 67%. The mobile app Viewable Rate topped 75% for both display and video. During Q1 2020, the volume of mobile app traffic grew by 19% compared with the same period last year, and measured OM SDK impressions grew by 307%.