DoubleVerify Research Reveals Key Trends Across ‘Made for Advertising’ Sites

DoubleVerify (“DV”), the leading software platform for digital media measurement, data, and analytics, announced findings from its eighth annual Global Insights Report, which analyzes media quality and performance trends across more than one trillion impressions from over 2,000 brands in 100 markets. The findings focus on content patterns across “Made for Advertising” (MFA) websites.

“MFA sites predominantly focus on evergreen content topics, which are easily recycled across multiple websites using generative AI tools”

According to DV’s analysis, there are notable differences in the types of content MFA websites produce compared with other media. MFA sites commonly feature evergreen content such as health and fitness, travel, and family and parenting, while avoiding time-sensitive topics like sports or news. In fact, according to DV’s analysis, MFAs are:

• 99% more likely to cover travel
• 57% more likely to cover family and parenting
• 47% more likely to cover health and fitness

Relatedly, DV found MFA sites less likely to cover dynamic topics. In fact, MFAs were 95% less likely to cover news and 56% less likely to cover sports.

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“MFA sites predominantly focus on evergreen content topics, which are easily recycled across multiple websites using generative AI tools,” said Collette Spagnolo, VP, Marketing Analytics, DoubleVerify. “Advertisers must have clear protocols and criteria in place to ensure they’re running on content they find valuable for their campaigns and audience.”

In June 2023, amid concerns that new Gen AI tools were accelerating the production of inappropriate content, the ANA reported that MFA sites comprised 21% of all programmatic ad impressions and attracted 15% of total advertising spend. Last month, DV also revealed a near-20% (19%) year-over-year increase in MFA impression volume.

According to DV, MFA sites exhibit most or all of the following characteristics:

• A high ratio of ads to actual content on the page, with ads frequently refreshing to maximize profit from a single visit
• A heavy reliance on paid traffic sources – such as social and native advertising – with little to no traffic coming from organic sources
• Content designed to keep users endlessly scrolling or clicking within the same site
• Content that is often duplicated verbatim across various websites
• Low ad intensity, which is a comparison of the viewable time duration of an ad to the DV benchmark

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“As generative AI continues to advance, we anticipate MFA sites will become more sophisticated, posing new challenges for advertisers striving to maintain brand integrity,” added Spagnolo. “These sites will not only proliferate but also become more adept at mimicking legitimate content sources. Advertisers need a technology partner to help them scale MFA protection.”

Method: The report employs DV technology to analyze over one trillion impressions from over 2,000 brands in 100 markets, both pre and post-bid, and offers a detailed market-by-market analysis for North America, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC. It covers video and display impressions from January to December 2023 across desktop, mobile web, mobile app, and connected TV (CTV).