The Quality Gap in Video Advertising Is Growing!
The 21st edition of the IAS Media Quality Report, prepared using 300 billion digital interactions daily and recognized as the industry’s most actionable benchmark, has been published.
Video advertising has become central to performance-driven campaigns. The second key trend highlighted in the report shows that video is steadily widening its lead over display advertising in the viewability race, making it the most advantageous environment for attention measurement.
The Viewability and Attention Gap Is Growing!
According to global data for 2025, the viewability rate for video ads reached 79.7%, putting it 11.8 percentage points ahead of display ads, which stood at 67.9%.
Although both formats improved throughout the year (+2.4 points for video and +1.9 points for display advertising), video maintained this consistent advantage across all major regions analyzed.
At a time when the advertising industry is shifting toward attention-based measurement, an ad must first be seen on screen to have an impact.
Industry Differences: CPG Leads, Travel Lags Behind
Media quality also varies significantly across the industry verticals in which brands operate.
According to the analysis, the CPG sector leads the market with the lowest Invalid Traffic (IVT) rate at 0.9% and the highest video viewability rate at 83.55%.
This success is attributed to strong media quality practices and a media mix aligned with high-performing formats.
In contrast, the Travel and Entertainment sector faces the highest IVT rate at 1.40% and the highest Made-for-Advertising (MFA) rate at 1.56%, while ranking among the lowest with a video viewability rate of 77.82%.
This situation demonstrates that travel brands need additional protection strategies to address fraud and brand suitability.
Regional Performance: Poland and Australia Are at the Top
Looking at country-level video viewability metrics, among the 10 markets with the highest impression volumes, Poland (84.37%) and Australia (84.05%) share the top spot, exceeding the global average by more than 4 percentage points.
Japan recorded the lowest viewability environment among the top 10 markets, with a rate of 63.21%.
These differences show that regional averages can mask actual performance in individual countries and that global targets must be calibrated according to local market dynamics.
Conclusion: Attention Turns into Sales with Real-World Data
The high viewability and attention advantage offered by video goes beyond being a theoretical metric and drives direct business results and revenue in campaigns:
Kimberly-Clark and NCSolutions: In a study using IAS Quality Attention™ measurements, the brand saw a 36% increase in average attention scores after shifting its campaign from browser-based display ads to video in-app ads.
More importantly, this strategy generated a 313% higher sales lift compared with campaigns with below-average attention scores and improved ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) by 78% compared with a scenario consisting solely of display ads.
For advertisers, video advertising is no longer just a channel choice; it has become a key performance driver that turns attention metrics into sales growth. Contact us to direct your digital advertising investments toward the most efficient environments!
