Top 5 display network ad quality benchmarks

Nearly one out of four display network ads is not seen, with an average viewability rate of only 76.1%. Ad fraud accounts for approximately 22% of digital ad spend, or around US$84 billion in 2023, with up to 45% of this spend sourced from bots.

Poor placements, irrelevant sites, and ad fraud collectively cost brands billions of dollars annually. This guide covers the top 5 display network ad quality benchmarks and shows how ClickPatrol ensures your ads appear only on trusted, high-performing sites.

Top 5 display network ad quality benchmarks to protect your ad spend

The top five display network ad quality metrics determine the proper visibility, effectiveness, and trustworthiness of your display network ad campaigns.

Viewability benchmark for display network ad quality

Viewability measures whether people saw an ad impression or had the opportunity to do so. According to the IAB and Media Rating Council definition, a viewable display ad requires at least 50% of its pixels to be on screen for one consecutive second.

For video ads, the percentage is usually higher (50% of pixels, for 2 seconds) or longer. Low viewability tends to go hand in hand with poor CTR, wasted impressions, and diminished brand lift.

Poorly placed ads below the fold or buried in cluttered layouts consistently underperform. High viewability ensures your spend creates actual visibility and engagement. Benchmarks to target:

• Desktop display: 65–75% viewability
• Mobile web display: 60–70%
• Video formats: 70–80%+, especially for premium inventory

How to increase the viewability rate:

• Use pre-bid viewability filters to exclude low-performing inventory.
• Remove placements with poor historical viewability.
• Choose high-performing sizes (e.g., 300×250, 728×90).
• Work only with publishers that have viewability measurement.
• Watch average time-in-view, not just whether the ad enters viewable space.

CTR: Measuring engagement for display network ad quality

CTR is the percentage of impressions that lead to a click. While display ads tend to have low CTRs, they remain a valuable measure of engagement and relevance.

An abnormally low CTR can indicate low ad quality, off-topic users, or poor placements. If you are seeing thousands of impressions but essentially zero clicks, your ads are most likely appearing in areas where users don’t notice or are not interested in them.

CTR helps you compare site and audience performance, enabling you to identify the top and bottom performers. Benchmarks to aim for:

• Display average, overall: 0.10–0.20%
• High-intent verticals (finance, real estate, etc.): 0.4–1.0% or even more.
• Rich media / interactive formats: tend to be above 0.14%

How to improve the CTR rate:

• Test creatives, message, and call-to-action with A/B tests.
• Use interactive, native, rich media ad formats to engage.
• Target contexts and placements that align with your audience (interests, topics, brand safe environments).
• Cut spending in placements that routinely have low CTRs.
• Apply frequency caps to prevent ad fatigue.

Ensuring brand safety and fraud protection for the display network ad quality

Brand safety ensures that your ads do not appear alongside harmful or controversial content, including hate speech, adult content, or misinformation.

Ad fraud (non-human impressions or invalid traffic) is a form of misleading work that is a waste of your budget and misrepresentation of metrics.

It does not really matter how good your viewability and CTR are, as long as you place your advertisements on unreliable websites. Harmful or risky placements can damage the brand name and compromise campaign data.

One of the most important aspects of display ad quality is blocking bad placements early, which ClickPatrol solves by preventing wasted ad spend. Benchmarks to target:

• Fraud / invalid traffic (SIVT): preferably below 1-2% impressions.
• Brand-safe impressions: 95%+ of total delivery.

How to improve brand safety, suitability, and fraud rates includes:

• Apply third-party verification (DoubleVerify, IAS, MOAT)
• Activate pre-bid brand safety filtering (keyword, content category, and domain exclusions).
• Allow whitelist publishers and block low-authority.
• Conduct an ordinal URL-level audit to identify high-risk sites.
• Introduce a system of fraud detection and invalid traffic monitoring.

Time-in-view, and exposure duration

The increase in visibility leads to greater ad impact, awareness, and brand recall. A one-second impression delivers far less impact than a 10-second impression.

Low time-in-view commonly results in poor placements, whether in carousels, on unattractive pages, or below the fold.

Quantifying this will help you identify placements that actually capture the audience’s attention. Benchmarks to target:

• For standard display ads, aiming for 5-10 seconds of visible time is a reasonable goal.
• Video ads: seek greater exposure or higher video quarter completion.

What you can do:

• Make placements on high-engagement websites (long dwell time) a priority.
• There should be no autoplay or heavy scrolling that reduces exposure.
• Streamline ad loading so creatives load as they are.
• Use partners who report in-view time and exclude those with poor performance.
• Filter out sites with historically low exposure durations.

Domain authority and placement relevance for the display network ad quality

Domain or placement quality depends on domain authority, content relevance, ad density, engagement, and past performance.
It shows whether your ads reach real people in the proper context.

Even with strong viewability or CTR, ads on poor-quality sites can harm your brand and waste your budget. ClickPatrol actively blocks bad placements, ensuring ads run only on trusted, relevant domains. Benchmarks to target:

1. Choose high-authority, trusted sites.
2. Match ads to relevant categories.
3. Avoid pages with too many banners.
4. Exclude domains with low CTR or high fraud.
5. Use whitelist and blacklist controls.

What to do:

1. Keep a list of risky domains.
2. Vet sites with authority tools.
3. Use content exclusions.
4. Audit placements often.
5. Focus on premium inventory.

Case study: How ClickPatrol reduced wasted ad spend by 29%

A European e-commerce advertiser noticed high click volume but low conversion rates, indicating invalid traffic. ClickPatrol analyzed 18,311 clicks, classifying IPs into Safe, Low, Medium, or High risk, and automatically blocked 8% of fraudulent clicks. The results:

• 29% ad spend saved (~€209 of €1,830)
• Cleaner, high-quality traffic
• Better visibility and engagement

By filtering out irrelevant clicks, ClickPatrol ensures ads reach real, high-intent users, turning wasted impressions into measurable ROI.

How ClickPatrol helps advertisers surpass these benchmarks

Ad quality is not just about reporting after a campaign; it starts with prevention. ClickPatrol blocks low-quality placements before your ads ever appear, keeping your budget safe and performance strong. How ClickPatrol helps:

• Pre-bid filtering: Automatically blockd low-quality or irrelevant domains.
• Reputation scoring: Approves only trusted domains and blocks scam inventory.
• Continuous auditing: Tracks CTR, viewability, and time-in-view to flag weak placements in real time.

By combining proactive exclusion, domain intelligence, and real-time validation, ClickPatrol delivers ad placements that are:

• More viewable
• More relevant
• More brand-safe
• More cost-efficient

Redefining display network ad quality

Display advertisements are among the most effective methods for creating awareness and driving conversions; however, they should be placed in appropriate, high-quality environments.

Advertisements on poor-quality, irrelevant, or fraudulent sites cannot be seen and can damage a brand’s reputation. By adhering to the five (5) standards discussed above, advertisers can ensure their ad spend drives actual visibility and action.

Prevent low-quality placements from draining your budget. With ClickPatrol, you can safeguard your campaigns, eliminate waste, and ensure your ads only appear on trusted, high-performing sites.

Take control of your ad quality today, protect your ad spend, and amplify your results with ClickPatrol.

Abisola

Meet Abisola! As the content manager at ClickPatrol, she’s the go-to expert on all things fake traffic. From bot clicks to ad fraud, Abisola knows how to spot, stop, and educate others about the sneaky tactics that inflate numbers but don’t bring real results.

View all posts by Abisola (Abisola)

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