DoubleVerify’s 2025 Global Insights Report Reveals Changes in North America’s Digital Advertising Environment

In the face of increasing bot fraud and the growing significance of attention metrics, DoubleVerify’s latest report highlights crucial trends influencing media quality and performance.

NEW YORK — DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform focused on verifying media quality, optimizing ad performance, and demonstrating campaign outcomes, has unveiled its 2025 Global Insights: North America Report. This annual report emphasizes emerging advertising trends and benchmarks related to media quality, based on over one trillion impressions across desktop, mobile, and CTV environments, alongside survey responses from 400 advertising and marketing decision-makers and 3,000 consumers across the region.

Among the key findings are:

In a survey conducted by DV involving 400 advertising and marketing executives, it was discovered that social media is now the leading channel for driving campaign performance, outperforming all others. Particularly, reels and social feeds take the forefront, with 77% referring to social media reels and 75% identifying social feeds as essential. Following closely were CTV at 69%, commerce media networks at 67%, and programmatic open web at 58%.

In connection with this, a survey of 3,000 North American consumers showed that the consumption of online content is increasing, with an average of 3.8 hours spent per day on leisure content—media consumed for enjoyment, relaxation, or personal interest rather than for work or studying. However, a noteworthy 41% of respondents also reported using ad blockers, suggesting that, while digital content consumption and engagement continue to rise, there is also a growing resistance to disruptive or low-quality ad experiences.

According to DV’s findings, North America has encountered a staggering 101% surge in bot fraud year-over-year, with the U.S. experiencing a 106% rise alone, contrasting with a 35% decline witnessed in Canada. The latter half of 2024 witnessed a peak in bot fraud activity—marking a significant 122% increase in Q3’24 compared to Q3’23 and an astounding 234% rise in Q4’24 compared to Q2’23, primarily attributed to mobile app video advertisements. Notably, desktop display and CTV video ads also contributed to considerable fraudulent bot activity, as indicated by DV’s analysis.

Moreover, AI-driven crawlers and scrapers are becoming a significant source of invalid traffic (IVT). In the second half of 2024, general invalid traffic (GIVT) escalated by 86% year-over-year, with 16% of it associated with bots linked to popular AI tools such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and AppleBot. This alarming increase underscores the necessity of closely monitoring GIVT as AI-based scraping continues to rise.

Authentic Viewability, which was previously a basic metric for gauging “attention,” experienced slight growth in 2024—rising to 71% in North America, a 3% increase from the previous year. This growth was driven by a 4% increase in desktop video viewability and a remarkable 16% jump in CTV video authentic viewability. Yet, even with these improvements, North America still lags 4% behind the global attention average, according to DV data. A contributing factor to this lag is the poor performance exhibited by small-sized in-app display ads, which fall 35% short of the global benchmark in Exposure—DV’s criteria for assessing ad presentation, including elements like viewable time, screen share, video quality, and audibility.

“As media investments grow increasingly intricate and fragmented, our insights provide a vital roadmap for advertisers aiming to minimize waste, enhance engagement, and achieve tangible results across North America and beyond,” stated Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “Equipped with a comprehensive and transparent perspective on media quality and performance, we enable brands to make informed media investment choices and achieve superior outcomes.”

To access the full report, visit: doubleverify.com/2025-dv-global-insights-north-america-report/

About DoubleVerify

DoubleVerify (“DV”) (NYSE: DV) stands as the preeminent media effectiveness platform that harnesses AI to produce superior outcomes for global brands. By augmenting media efficiency and performance, DV fortifies the online advertising ecosystem, sustaining the equitable value exchange between buyers and sellers of digital media. To learn more, please visit www.doubleverify.com.