Ad.com, Microsoft, ValueClick Among Most Compliant Ad Networks

Online ad verification company DoubleVerify has released a Trust Index that measures compliance and brand safety among ad tech companies. Among the top finishers in the index, which covers the first half of 2010, were AOL’s Advertising.com, AudienceScience, Burst Media, FOX Audience Network, interclick, Microsoft Media Network, Tribal Fusion Online, and ValueClick Media.

New York-based DoubleVerify’s Index looked at multiple data points to analyze the overall non-compliance of the online advertising industry, including instances where multiple ads from the same advertiser were served to the same page and when ads were served alongside a competitor’s advertisement.

DoubleVerify noted that while the top ad tech companies had an average of only 2 percent non-compliance, the ten lowest performing ones averaged 37 percent. DoubleVerify also found that Trading Desks, DSPs and Ad Exchanges were among the most compliant ad platforms, averaging about 6 percent non-compliance.

“The data…is encouraging; while there is still some non-compliance there has definitely been a lot of improvement,” said DoubleVerify CEO Oren Netzer.

Netzer cited recent studies noting that while consumers now spend 40 percent of the their time online, Web-based programs still only account for about 8 percent of the overall ad budget. “If you only factor in brand advertisers, it’s less than half that,” he said.

“We’re all waiting as an industry for this big gap to close,” he said. “In order for brand dollars to shift online, advertisers need to trust that their campaigns are running as intended and the Trust Index provides an overview of how the industry is doing against those expectations.”