CTV Advertisers Targeting ‘Fully On-Screen’ Environments See Less Fraud and Superior Performance

Viewability – a measure of whether an ad had the chance to be seen by a user – is an important performance indicator for advertisers across all digital media – and especially in CTV, as dollars continue to flow to the channel. To measure viewability for digital video, advertisers have historically relied on Video Player-Ad Interface Definition (VPAID), a code that runs within video players to provide engagement insights. However, VPAID isn’t supported in CTV environments. This has forced advertisers to assume all CTV environments are fully viewable when, in reality, this simply isn’t true.

A recent study found that about $1 billion worth of streaming ads every year are playing after people have already turned off their TVs. And in February 2022, DV was the first to reveal that 1-in-4 top CTV environments continued to play programming content – and recorded ad impressions – after the TV was turned off.

We know that brands expect their ads to deliver to engaged audiences while the TV set is on. Why wouldn’t they? And so, to combat this challenge, we created DV Fully On-Screen.

What Is DV Fully On-Screen?

DV Fully On-Screen is a solution that helps advertisers solve for viewability challenges and improve campaign performance on CTV. Advertisers can use DV’s Fully On-Screen to measure and optimize campaigns toward environments that only deliver fully on-screen ads and when the TV screen is turned on.

In 2020, DV launched its Fully On-Screen certification offering, an MRC-accredited post-bid measurement solution. As part of its offering, DV tests and evaluates leading CTV devices and apps to ensure ads are only displayed 100% on-screen and when the TV screen is turned on.

In 2022, to complement our post-bid measurement solution, DV introduced Fully On-Screen targeting. Using DV’s Fully On-Screen targeting segment, advertisers can target inventory from sources that have received DV’s Fully On-Screen certification – meaning that impressions are certified to be from CTV environments that deliver ads fully on-screen when the TV screen is turned on.

To better understand the connection between Fully On-Screen certified CTV environments and performance, we recently ran an A/B analysis in a leading DSP. Below are some of those results.

Fraud 83% Lower in ‘Fully On-Screen’ Environments

In our A/B analysis, the two campaigns differed on one critical dimension: one campaign targeted environments that were “Fully On-Screen” – meaning certified to only display ads when the TV screen is on and where the ad was 100% displayed (Campaign B), while the other did not (Campaign A).

With the analysis, we found a correlation between lower ad fraud and inventory certified to play ads 100% on screen when the TV is on – the Fraud/Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) Rate was 83% lower for Campaign B, which ran in Fully On-Screen environments, than Campaign A.

Fully On-Screen Environments Drive Better Engagement

CTV commands some of the highest CPMs in digital advertising, which can make it more susceptible to fraud and bad actors. Targeting environments certified to only display ads when the TV screen is on and where the ad is 100% displayed helps to reduce fraud’s impact and improve campaign ROI.

Additionally, our analysis found that campaigns targeting Fully On-Screen CTV environments saw stronger performance as indicated in the results below:

• Increased Video Completion Rate (VCR) – When targeting environments that only display ads when the TV is on and the ad is 100% on screen, VCR can be 18% higher (96% for Campaign B versus 81% for Campaign A).
• Higher Authentic Ad Rate – In terms of Authentic Ad Rate, describing ads served to a real person in a brand suitable environment and in the right geo, Campaign B was 5% higher (99% versus 94%).
• Improved Attention Levels – Overall Authentic, Fully On-Screen completion rate – a DV proxy for ad exposure in CTV and a key driver of user attention – was 95% for Campaign B, while DV saw an insignificant number of Authentic, Fully On-Screen impressions for Campaign A. We found that improving ad exposure correlates with increased brand awareness and favorability.

Download our infographic to understand the impact DV Fully On-Screen targeting can have on your campaign performance.