DoubleVerify’s (NYSE: DV) latest Global Insights report suggests that the digital ad world now resembles a handful of powerful theme parks: millions of visitors, plenty of thrills, and a nagging suspicion that someone else is controlling the turnstiles. The company’s new deep dive into “walled gardens” argues that advertisers are still happily queueing up for rides on the big social and commerce platforms—but they are increasingly demanding a better map, more safety rails, and a clear view of where their money actually goes.
Walled gardens grow higher
The 2025 Global Insights Report on Walled Gardens homes in on the largest social and commerce platforms and finds that they have become the dominant gateways for advertising, product discovery, and even news consumption. Brands have followed users into these closed ecosystems, concentrating budgets on environments that promise scale and targeting while offering just enough transparency to keep nervous CFOs on board.
Marketers want light, not just scale
Marketers increasingly rank transparency, addressability, and trust alongside reach and performance when judging platforms, a sign that raw impressions are losing their charm. Many are rethinking how they measure success inside walled gardens, pushing for independent verification, granular controls, and a clearer accounting of where ads appear and who is actually seeing them.
Social platforms as shopping malls
Social platforms have evolved into full-fledged commerce hubs, blurring the lines between entertainment, shopping, and news in a way that delights engagement teams and terrifies brand stewards. As consumers scroll from creator content to checkout in a few taps, advertisers are forced to confront the reality that a brand’s “storefront” is now a video feed, an influencer post, or a shoppable livestream that sits squarely inside someone else’s walled domain.
Verification as a passport
DoubleVerify positions its verification, fraud detection, and attention measurement tools as a kind of passport that lets brands move through these gated environments with fewer unpleasant surprises. By layering its measurement and brand-safety controls across social, CTV, and broader omnichannel campaigns, the company pitches itself as the independent referee in a game increasingly officiated by platforms that also keep the score.
An arms race in trust
The broader series of 2025 Global Insights reports—from regional breakdowns to streaming and omnichannel benchmarks—paints a picture of an industry locked in an arms race between scale and scrutiny. Ad fraud, viewability gaps, and uneven attention metrics remain stubborn problems, but the data show incremental improvements where verification and tighter controls are widely adopted, turning brand safety from a compliance box-check into a competitive edge.
The bill comes due for opacity
The quiet punchline to the walled‑garden narrative is that opacity now carries a price premium that fewer marketers are willing to pay. Platforms that cannot convincingly demonstrate real audiences, safe environments, and accountable performance may find that the walls they built to protect their data are also keeping out increasingly skeptical ad budgets.
How Google, Amazon, and Walmart fit in
For Google (GOOG), tighter verification across its properties and networks strengthens the pitch that performance marketing does not have to mean “trust us” marketing, helping the company reassure risk‑averse brands even as it expands inventory and automation. Amazon (AMZN), already sitting on a closed loop between ad exposure and purchase, stands to benefit when independent measurement validates that its shopper‑data advantage translates into real, high‑quality outcomes rather than just higher ad prices. Walmart (WMT), rapidly scaling its own retail media and commerce ecosystem, can use DoubleVerify-style safeguards to convince national advertisers that its growing walled garden offers not only reach among in‑market shoppers but also the same level of third‑party accountability they expect from more mature digital giants—positioning the retailer as a credible, brand‑safe alternative rather than merely a budget line item in the “experimental” column.
The Sources
- https://doubleverify.com/company/newsroom/doubleverify-launches-pre-screen-safety-and-suitability-solution-for-googles-search-partner-network-spn-to-strengthen-brand-protection-and-maximize-roi
- https://www.adexchanger.com/brand-safety/measurement-looks-like-a-recession-proof-business-for-doubleverify/
- https://www.emarketer.com/content/doubleverify-tools-increase-ctv-ad-transparency–quality
- https://pub.doubleverify.com/blog/making-sense-of-measurement-the-retail-media-network-opportunity/
- https://doubleverify.com/company/newsroom/doubleverify-launches-dv-authentic-advantage-an-industry-first-ai-powered-solution-to-drive-superior-performance-across-proprietary-video-platform
- https://doubleverify.com/company/newsroom/doubleverify-expands-global-measurement-capabilities-to-include-amazon-custom-audiences
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/doubleverify-inc_dv-is-excited-to-announce-a-new-partnership-activity-7338563751119368192-XAlG
- https://www.worldofdaas.com/p/doubleverify-mark-zagorski
- https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/google-ad-buyers-transparency-performance-max/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/martyswant/2021/03/04/doubleverify-detects-new-ad-fraud-scheme-on-connected-tv-devices-thats-costing-advertisers-millions/
