92% of buyers prioritise responsible suppliers

The Europe-wide survey explored buyers’ digital advertising quality concerns, as well as their attitudes towards industry standards and different types of inventory. The results underscore the importance of industry standards, such as the IAB UK Gold Standard, Digital Ad Trust in France or IAB Poland QUALID. The survey was developed by national IABs within IAB Europe’s European Quality Working Group. The results show that: 

• 92% of buyers said they prefer to spend their advertising budget with suppliers that adhere to industry standards

• 84% of all buyers said that they are willing to pay a premium price for higher quality, trusted inventory 
• 73% said that they check if a media owner or supplier adheres to industry standards before spending budget with them
• Only 19% of buyers that responded to the survey said that they don’t mind about industry standards at all. This decreased to 6% if the buyer was in a market with a national quality standard
• The survey also asked buyers about the areas most in need of the development of standards with CTV coming out on top, followed by audio and DOOH

A vast amount of work is being undertaken in Europe to improve and uphold quality standards in digital advertising, as outlined in the IAB Europe Quality Initiatives Navigator. In 2017, IAB UK created the Gold Standard in order to tackle quality concerns. Today there are seven markets with a national quality standard or scheme in place. The results suggest these standards help raise awareness of quality concerns, such as brand safety and ad fraud; buyers in markets with a national standard vs. those in a market without were more likely to be aware of those concerns.

In terms of the key quality concerns, the survey found that when buying digital advertising, viewability and brand safety are considered the biggest issues for advertisers and agencies. 89% said they were concerned or very concerned about viewability and 79% said the same about brand safety.

Marie-Clare Puffett, Senior Manager, Marketing & Industry Programmes at IAB Europe, said: “The results of the study we are releasing today, provides reassurance, for the national IABs that already have a quality standard in place and those that are in the process of creating one, that buyers value those standards when spending their budgets within our ecosystem. The work of our European Quality Working Group is important to ensure harmonisation so that international businesses don’t have to adhere to a multitude of different standards across Europe.”

Tim Elkington, Chief Digital Officer at IAB UK, added: “The fact that 92% of advertisers and agencies prefer to spend their budget with suppliers that adhere to industry standards underscores the vital importance of creating shared standards at a national level – such as the Gold Standard in the UK – as well as building consistency of standards between different markets. Increasing collaboration between IABs can play an essential role here, making it easier for our members to navigate and adhere to digital advertising best practice at both a national and international level.”

You can find the full results of the survey here.