DoubleVerify's 2025 Global Insights Report Uncovers North America's Shifting Digital Ad Landscape
From rising bot fraud to the growing impact of attention metrics, DV's latest report reveals key trends shaping media quality and performance
DoubleVerify ("DV") (NYSE:DV), the leading software platform to verify media quality, optimize ad performance, and prove campaign outcomes, today released its 2025 Global Insights: North America Report. The annual report highlights emerging advertising trends and media quality benchmarks, based on more than one trillion impressions across desktop, mobile, and CTV environments, along with survey responses from 400 advertising and marketing decision-makers and 3,000 consumers across the region.
Key findings include:
DV's survey of 400 advertising and marketing decision-makers found that social media outperforms all other channels in driving campaign performance above the baseline, especially reels and feeds. When asked to rank the top-performing channels, 77% cited social media reels and 75% named social feeds. The top-five were rounded out by 69% for CTV, 67% for commerce media networks, and 58% for programmatic open web.
In parallel, DV's survey of 3,000 North American consumers revealed that online content consumption was on the rise, with users spending an average of 3.8 hours per day on leisure content (media that people consume for enjoyment, relaxation, or personal interest rather than for work, study, or utility). However, 41% of respondents also reported using ad blockers, signaling that while digital consumption and engagement are growing, so too is consumer resistance to disruptive or low-quality ad experiences.
According to DV data, North America has seen bot fraud surge 101% year-over-year, with a 106% increase in the U.S. alone, compared with a 35% decline in Canada. Bot fraud peaked in the second half of 2024—up 122% in Q3'24 vs Q3'23 and 234% in Q4'24 vs Q2'23—driven largely by mobile app video ads. Desktop display and CTV video ads, however, also represented significant shares of fraudulent bot activity, according to DV's analysis.
AI-powered crawlers and scrapers are becoming a growing source of invalid traffic (IVT). In the second half of 2024, general invalid traffic (GIVT) spiked 86% year-over-year in 2H, with 16% of that tied to bots linked to legitimate AI tools such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and AppleBot. This surge underscores the importance of monitoring GIVT as AI-based scraping becomes more prevalent.
Authentic Viewability, once a basic proxy for evaluating "attention," saw modest gains in 2024—rising to 71% in North America, a 3% increase from the prior year. Growth was fueled by a 4% uptick in desktop video and a 16% surge in CTV video authentic viewability. Yet, as the industry shifts to more precise attention-based metrics, North America still lags the global attention average, per DV data, by 4%. A major factor: poor performance from small-sized in-app display ads, which scored 35% below the global benchmark in Exposure, DV's metric for evaluating ad presentation through elements like viewable time, share of screen, video quality, and audibility.
"As media investments become more complex and fragmented, our insights offer a critical roadmap for advertisers seeking to reduce waste, maximize engagement, and drive tangible outcomes across North America and beyond," said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. "With a deep, transparent view into media quality and performance, we empower brands to make smarter media investment decisions and deliver superior results."
To view the full report, visit: doubleverify.com/2025-dv-global-insights-north-america-report/
About DoubleVerify
DoubleVerify ("DV") (NYSE:DV) is the industry's leading media effectiveness platform that leverages AI to drive superior outcomes for global brands. By powering media efficiency and performance, DV strengthens the online advertising ecosystem, preserving the fair value exchange between buyers and sellers of digital media. Learn more at www.doubleverify.com.
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