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Share on XAPAC’s 2025 media quality profile is harder to sum up than a regional average suggests. The region has the lowest made-for-advertising (MFA) rate globally at 0.7%, yet its brand suitability fail rate is 1.3X baseline, above the global average.
The bigger story is the variation between markets. Australia and Japan, for example, are more than 20 percentage points apart on video viewability. Integral Ad Science (IAS)’s 21st Edition Media Quality Report, based on more than 300 billion daily digital interactions, shows why advertisers operating across APAC need to look beyond regional benchmarks.
How APAC Compares With North America and EMEA
North America, EMEA and APAC each have a different media quality profile.
North America recorded the lowest suitability fail rate of the three regions at 1.0X baseline, along with the highest IVT rate at 1.36% and the highest MFA rate at 1.5%.
EMEA had the highest suitability fail rate at 1.5X baseline, while its fraud metrics were comparatively lower.
APAC falls between the two on several measures, but its combination of results is distinct.
Its 0.7% MFA rate is the lowest of any major region, compared with 0.9% in EMEA and 1.5% in North America. APAC’s 1.1% IVT rate also falls between the other two regions. Its suitability fail rate, however, is 1.3X baseline, higher than North America’s.
APAC has relatively low levels of MFA and a lower IVT rate than North America, but content suitability remains a concern. Low MFA should not be treated as an indication that every aspect of media quality risk is equally low.
What APAC's Suitability Risk Means for Campaigns
An impression can meet a brand safety threshold while still appearing alongside content that does not fit a brand’s positioning.
APAC’s 1.3X baseline suitability fail rate points to the potential for that kind of exposure. For advertisers running broad-reach campaigns across the region, those impressions can add up quickly.
That makes pre-bid optimization important. Filtering suitability risk before an impression is purchased can reduce wasted spend and help budgets reach environments that align with a brand’s requirements.
The IAS data also shows that across verticals, advertisers that shifted from monitoring to proactive pre-bid filtering achieved sharp reductions in suitability fail rates and recaptured spend.
Australia and Japan Show Why Regional Video Benchmarks Fall Short
APAC’s overall video viewability rate was 80.2% in 2025, close to the global average of 79.7%.
That figure alone does not show how differently individual markets performed.
Australia recorded 83.83% video viewability, the second-highest rate among the top 10 global markets. Japan recorded 63.21%, the lowest among those markets.
The difference is more than 20 percentage points.
Both markets sit within the APAC regional benchmark, but their video viewability results are very different. Using the regional average as the main performance reference can therefore create a misleading picture: advertisers may overestimate performance in Japan while underestimating it in Australia.
Country-level benchmarking provides a more useful basis for evaluating and optimizing campaigns.
What the APAC Media Quality Data Means for Advertisers
The MQR data points to a few considerations for advertisers operating across APAC.
Fraud is relatively controlled.
APAC’s 0.7% MFA rate is the lowest among the major regions, giving the region a structural advantage over markets with higher levels of made-for-advertising inventory.
Suitability needs active management.
With a 1.3X baseline suitability fail rate, advertisers need controls that address content adjacency before impressions are purchased. Broad-reach campaigns can increase exposure to environments that fall outside a brand’s suitability parameters.
Performance varies significantly by country.
Australia’s 83.83% video viewability and Japan’s 63.21% show how much can be hidden by a single APAC benchmark. A strategy based only on the regional average will not reflect performance in either market accurately.
For advertisers, an APAC-wide strategy cannot rely on one set of regional assumptions. Campaign management needs market-specific benchmarks, suitability controls aligned with local content environments, and measurement that separates performance by country.
Explore the Full APAC Media Quality Picture
Download the full 2025 Media Quality Report to explore APAC’s latest media quality benchmarks, uncover market-level differences, and discover data-driven strategies for optimizing campaign performance across the region.
