Pixalate Releases Q4 2023 Global Ad Fraud Benchmarks for CTV: 17% Invalid Traffic Rate Across CTV Platforms Including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Totaling $1.1B in Lost Ad Spend

Research into Q4 2023 global invalid traffic (IVT, including ad fraud) in open programmatic CTV advertising reveals traffic from EMEA reported the highest CTV IVT rate at 42%, while UK-based traffic on CTV apps had the highest IVT rate worldwide at 49%

London, 14 March 2024 -- Pixalate, the global market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, today released the Q4 2023 Global Connected TV (CTV) Invalid Traffic Benchmark Report, analyzing the invalid traffic (IVT, including ad fraud) rates for open programmatic advertising on CTV devices including Roku, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire TV, LG, Vizio, Xiaomi, and more.

To compile the research, Pixalate’s data science team analyzed over 3 billion open programmatic CTV ad impressions in Q4 2023. The report benchmarks IVT and ad fraud across CTV devices by global region (Global, North America, EMEA, APAC, LATAM), country, device type, app category, and app-ads.txt files.

Key Findings:

IVT Benchmarks in Open Programmatic Advertising on CTV

• In Q4 2023, the global CTV IVT rate was 17% (down from 18% in Q4 2022)
  • Estimated $1.1 billion in global CTV open programmatic ad spend lost to IVT in Q4 2023, based on Pixalate’s estimate of $6.5 billion in open programmatic CTV ad spend in the quarter
• Traffic from EMEA reported the highest CTV IVT rate at 42%
• UK-based traffic on CTV apps had the highest IVT rate worldwide at 49%
• Amazon Fire TV devices had a 30% IVT rate
  • Roku and Apple TV had a 14% IVT rate 
  • Samsung device had the lowest IVT rate among leading CTV devices (11%)
• Amazon Fire TV apps in the “Video-Sharing” category had an IVT rate of 40%

Download a free copy of the report today:

About Pixalate

Pixalate is a global platform for privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and data intelligence in the digital ad supply chain. Founded in 2012, Pixalate’s platform is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is MRC-accredited for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). www.pixalate.com

Disclaimer

The content of this press release, and the Q4 2023 Connected TV Invalid Traffic Benchmarks Report (the "Report"), reflect Pixalate's opinions with respect to 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 programmatic advertising activity in the time period studied. Pixalate does not independently verify third-party information. Per the Media Rating Council (MRC), “‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.” IVT is also sometimes referred to as “ad fraud.” Per the MRC, “'Fraud' is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes.”