• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, October 14, 2024

Made for Advertising (MFA) in connected television (CTV) apps waste budgets in a trend that continues to rise.

MFA CTV apps may run video ads in a format or size that is not in line with typical CTV advertiser expectations, or ads that compete with the intended content on screen, Pixalate wrote in a recent report.

The company’s data-science team analyzed programmatic advertising activity across more than 100,000 CTV apps and more than 7 billion global open programmatic ad transactions and impressions between April and June 2024 to compile this research.

Apps analyzed run on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Samsung Smart TV app stores.

While MFA on websites present different characteristics than CTV MFA apps, advertisers seem to favor revenue compared with user experience.  

The research study found that apps flagged as MFA accounted for 2% of CTV apps within open programmatic advertising, and 1% of global CTV ad spend -- which amounts to an estimated $58 million in ad spend in Q2 2024.

Pixalate found that non-MFA CTV apps were 2x older than MFA apps — 3.2 years versus 5.9 years.

The study highlights a smaller share of MFA apps in CTV in comparison to websites, but the numbers are not tiny considering the long-term impact of MFA CTV apps on wasted ad spend and overall user experience.

One percent of global open programmatic ad-exchange spend on websites flagged as MFA declined in June 2024 after peaking in April 2024 at 1.6%, according to Pixalate’s data.

Some 99% of CTV MFA ad spend goes to apps with private or blank domains, the remaining 1% goes to MFA CTV apps registered in the United States.

Some 37% of CTV MFA global ad spend goes to the app category of Movies & TV apps. Games follow with 26%.

Early in October, the company released data around the Top 10 CTV Ad Fraud Types in August 2024 for Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Samsung Smart TV.

The report covered invalid traffic (IVT) and ad fraud measured across CTV app stores, including the number of distinct apps impacted and the share of voice of each IVT type.

Amazon Fire TV app spoofing was the most common IVT type, with 42% of total IVT and impacting 833 apps.

The “NewsChannel 13 KRDO” app had the highest IVT rate at 50% in August 2024, according to Pixalate’s data.

Apple TV app spoofing accounted for 46% of IVT, while Proxy IVT impacted the most apps. The AMC: Stream TV Shows & Movies shared the highest IVT rate across the platform at 42% in August 2024.

Samsung Smart TV: Proxy IVT accounted for 58% of IVT across Samsung Smart TV apps, with 35% of app spoofing, and 225 apps affected by app spoofing.

Roku app spoofing accounted for 45% of IVT, affecting 1,907 apps.