8 Major Points to Consider When Selecting an Ad Verification Partner

Industry disruptions like device fragmentation, privacy regulations and brand reputation are challenging ad measurement and the ability for brands to drive outcomes. Choosing an ad verification partner is an important decision not only in terms of brand protection but also as a means to ensure you’re creating the most effective media strategy across all devices.

While there are a number of players in the game trying to solve for today’s most significant industry challenges, it’s important to ask the verification provider the following questions before agreeing to terms.

1. Does your offering provide comprehensive coverage that measures ad quality across all formats, platforms and devices?

For advertising to make an impact, ads must be seen by a real person, in a brand suitable environment, in the intended geography.

Make sure the provider offers a single metric of quality measurement across all campaign types and formats, including display, video, programmatic, CTV, desktop, mobile web, mobile app and social.

2. Are your products and services accredited by the MRC?

Having an MRC accreditation serves as an external validation of a provider’s measurement, controls and processes. This enables advertisers to have assurances that the provider is fulfilling its role consistently and that it meets the standards set by the leading industry group.

Look for providers with a robust product offering and MRC accreditation that aligns with their services. And consider those that are accredited across a vast array of languages.

3. Are your solutions compliant with privacy regulations, and do they rely on third-party cookies or personally identifiable information?

Given the implications of privacy regulations and the deprecation of cookies, you’ll want to make sure the provider’s solutions are compliant with applicable privacy laws. And given the impending industry shift – driven by Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies – you’ll also want to ensure their solutions do not rely on persistent tracking (i.e. tracking that follows users from one site to another).

4. Do you offer comprehensive classification tools that aren’t reliant on keywords?

An effective brand safety and suitability strategy requires comprehensive content classification. If you can’t identify the topic and type of content, you won’t know if it’s safe or suitable. This can quickly become challenging when an infinite volume of new content is created each day and subsequently needs to be accurately analyzed.

5. Are you able to detect and protect your clients from costly fraud on CTV?

In 2022, an unprecedented number of schemes targeted CTV and video – the most complex and sophisticated of which included OctoBot, SneakyTerra, ViperBot and SmokeScreen. These schemes were poised to steal more than $6-8M each month from advertisers. CTV fraud schemes are costing publishers, too. DV estimates show that CTV schemes may have siphoned $144 million from publishers in 2021 annually. In order to prevent valuable CTV dollars from being spent on fraud, make sure the verification provider that you choose offers comprehensive fraud coverage across both CTV and mobile devices.

6. How much customer support do you offer?

To help address customer goals and business performance, it’s important that your provider provides simplified and streamlined onboarding, as well as long-term coordination and support.

You’ll also want to ensure your media teams are educated properly on how to maximize usage of the provider’s solutions, and that the provider can demonstrate ways to leverage measurement insights in order to achieve comprehensive digital campaign objectives.

7. Do you offer an API?

If the provider has a Data API, it will be easier for clients to access measurement and verification data that can be surfaced for reporting and analysis in their system of choice. This approach would also allow you to combine the provider’s measurement and verification data with data from other sources, providing a clearer picture of your advertising spend and performance.

8. What about innovation – do you offer opportunities to participate in cutting-edge solutions or features?

In an industry that’s constantly evolving, it’s important that your verification provider is committed to being at the forefront of technological advances that make your work more streamlined and more impactful.

Be sure to ask if the provider is open to participation in betas or new features that align with your goals.

If you’re searching for a new verification provider or thinking of switching, feel free to reach out to DoubleVerify to learn how you can best leverage our solutions to maximize the impact of your media campaigns.