Retail media exceeds benchmarks on brand suitability, fraud, and engagement, potentially fueling higher-performing ads 

1. Retail Media Networks (RMNs) and Their Significance:

• RMNs, leveraging first-party consumer data, are gaining popularity for their ability to target audiences at the point of purchase.
• They offer two types of inventory for advertisers: Owned & Operated (O&O) and audience extension, combining to provide rich consumer insights.

2. Media Quality and Performance:

• RMNs exhibit better media quality, with lower rates of ad fraud and brand suitability violations compared to other environments.
• Fraud rates in RMNs are nearly one-third lower than the overall benchmark, and brand suitability violations are 10% lower than the overall benchmark.

3. Viewability and Engagement:

• While RMNs perform well in brand suitability and fraud rates, viewability across RMNs is 8% lower than the benchmark.
• O&O inventory within RMNs has lower viewability rates compared to audience extension inventory, reflecting the focus on enhancing the shopping experience over ad viewability.
• However, O&O inventory effectively targets engaged shoppers, with engagement rates significantly higher than the attention baseline.

4. Nuanced Understanding of KPIs:

• The distinct roles of audience extension and O&O inventory in RMNs require a nuanced understanding of key performance indicators (KPIs).
• While audience extension ads boast higher viewability and exposure, O&O inventory demonstrates high user engagement profiles, emphasizing the importance of balancing KPIs.

Methodology:

• The report utilizes DoubleVerify technology to analyze over one trillion impressions across various regions and platforms.
• It includes a detailed market-by-market analysis for North America, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC, covering video and display impressions from January to December 2023.
• Additionally, a global survey conducted by Sapio, polling 1,000 advertisers across regions, provides further insights into media quality and performance trends.

DoubleVerify's report underscores the growing importance of RMNs in digital advertising, highlighting their strengths in media quality, audience targeting, and engagement. It emphasizes the need for advertisers to adopt a nuanced approach to KPIs and understand the distinct roles of different inventory types within RMNs for optimizing ad performance and ROI.