For the first time in the second half of 2018, Programmatic advertising viewability rates outperformed publisher direct buys across both desktop and mobile web display.  The UK desktop display ads meeting the minimum viewability standards rose 8.2 per cent from H1 2018 to 69.1 per cent in H2 2018. Meanwhile according to Integral Ad Science (IAS),  62.4 per cent of UK mobile web display impressions now meet minimum viewability standards, increasing 16.6 per cent year-on-year from H2 2017 to H2 2018.

Also as per the reports by Media Ratings Council (MRC), viewability was determined as 50% of the ad unit in view for one continuous second for display and mobile advertising, 30% for one continuous second on large display ad formats, and 50% for two seconds for video ads.When looking at the bigger picture, brand risk has fallen by just over half in the past two years all because of industry-wide focus on cleaning up the digital ad space.  The volume of desktop display ads served in ‘inappropriate environments’ fell 28.9 per cent from H1 2018, coming down from 4.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent in H2 2018.

However, ad fraud is on the rise as one per cent of optimised UK desktop display impressions were wasted in H2 2018 – a rise of 40.3 per cent from the 0.7 per cent in H1 2018. IAS partly attributes this to fraudsters capitalising on the holiday shopping period in Q4 2018.

Nick Morley, EMEA MD at Integral Ad Science, said that “Findings from the H2 2018 Media Quality Report demonstrate the major shift towards programmatic trading, with the term ‘programmatic’ no longer associated with lower quality inventory. “This is likely due in part to an increase in publishers utilizing programmatic to sell valuable inventory, via private marketplaces (PMPs). Another noticeable shift is that seen in video engagement, with content consumption patterns reflected in the time-in-view data.”