Pixalate's Q2 2024 Mobile App Ad Fraud Trends by IAB App Category

LONDON, September 23, 2024 -- Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, today released the Global Mobile App IVT Trends: IAB Categories for Open Programmatic Advertising Report.

Pixalate also released North America, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Latin America (LATAM) versions of the report.

The reports analyze each region’s top 10 IAB app categories by estimated open programmatic ad spend, invalid traffic (IVT) including ad fraud by app category, and the most prevalent types of IVT detected and identified within IAB app categories. Learn more about the types of invalid traffic detection.

Key Findings:

Global:

• “Video Gaming” IAB mobile app category had a global IVT (including ad fraud) rate of 17%, resulting in $693M ad spend lost in this category alone in Q2 2024

• “Technology & Computing” IAB mobile app category had the highest IVT rate (36%) among the top 10 IAB app categories based on estimated open programmatic ad spend

• “Hobbies & Interests” (31%), and “Technology & Computing” (36%) both had IVT rates higher than the global average (20%)

• “Display Impression Fraud” was the most common IVT type among the top 10 IAB app categories, accounting for 17% of all global IVT

Regional Breakdowns:

North America (18% overall regional IVT rate):

• “Education” had the highest IVT rate (30%) among the top 10 North American categories
• “Video Gaming” (top regional ad spend share at 62%) experienced a 17% IVT rate
• “Display Impression Fraud” had the highest regional share of invalid traffic (18%)
  

Latin America (22% overall regional IVT rate):

• “Technology & Computing” had the highest IVT rate (34%) among the top 10 LATAM categories
• “Video Gaming” (top regional ad spend share at 62%) experienced a 16% IVT rate
• “Display Impression Fraud” had the highest regional share of invalid traffic (31%)

Asia Pacific (APAC) (33% overall regional IVT rate):

• “Hobbies & Interests” had the highest regional IVT rate (45%) among the top 10 APAC categories 
• “Video Gaming” (top region ad spend share at 53%) experienced a 23% IVT rate
• “Display Impression Fraud” had the highest regional share of IVT (7%)

Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) (18% overall regional IVT rate):

• “Business and Finance” had the highest IVT rate (36%) among the top 10 EMEA categories
• “Video Gaming” (with a top regional ad spend share of 73%) had a lower IVT rate in EMEA (15%) than in other regions
• “Display Impression Fraud” had the highest regional share of invalid traffic (29%)

Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 60 billion open programmatic ad transactions across 7.3 million mobile apps in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store (including apps deemed delisted by Pixalate) in Q2 2024 to compile the research in this series. Pixalate's datasets consist predominantly of buy-side open auction programmatic traffic sources.

Download the reports for a complete analysis and review of each region’s top 10 IAB app categories by estimated open programmatic ad spend and the top IVT types within each category:

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform. Pixalate works 24/7 to guard your reputation and grow your media value by offering the only system of coordinated solutions across display, app, video, and CTV for the detection and elimination of ad fraud. Pixalate is an MRC-accredited service for the detection and filtration of sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) across desktop and mobile web, mobile in-app, and CTV advertising. www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Mobile App IVT Trends: IAB Categories Reports, reflect Pixalate’s opinions with respect to the factors that Pixalate believes can be useful to the digital media industry. Any data shared is grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate’s opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to the time period studied.