Best Practices: Viewability

Viewability is one way advertisers can control the efficiency of their advertising. It reduces the number of wasted impressions, rewards quality websites, and draws a clearer connection between ads that work and the lift that they produce. We have done extensive internal experimentation to develop and hone our models and better understand the efficacy of various solutions in the market. Our goal is to become a leader in enabling advertisers to maximize the viewability and effectiveness of their campaigns. In this article:

Definition

The Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB’s) definition for a viewable display/video ad calls for at least 50% of the ad’s content to be on-screen for more than one second. At Quantcast, we typically use the term viewability when talking about the likelihood that an ad will be viewable as defined by the IAB (i.e., a unit with 50% viewability will be IAB viewable, on average, 50% of the time).

Industry Challenges

There are many technical challenges associated with accurately measuring an ad’s viewability.

1. A large percentage of “Dark Viewability” (i.e., Unmeasurable Inventory). The most common challenge in the real-time bidding (RTB) environment is detecting whether an ad displayed within a nested iFrame (cross-domain iFrames) is on-screen or not. Most modern web browsers hide on-screen/off-screen information when using a nested iFrame, which makes measuring viewability difficult. Different vendors use different workarounds for this challenge, with varying degrees of success. This can create significant variances between viewability vendors.

2. Inconsistent Viewability Definition. There is a lack of consistency around what a viewable impression actually is. While the IAB released its 50% in-view for 1-second definition, there are still many other definitions being used, making it difficult for marketers to build technology to support these different models.

3. Discrepancies in Viewability Methodology and Measurement. Viewability measurement is inconsistent and somewhat flawed. Different ad units, browsers, ad placements, vendors, and measurement methodologies yield wildly different viewability numbers. Agencies and publishers often use different vendors, which has also made it harder to settle on measurement and pricing numbers on which both sides agree.

4. Unpredictable human element. Since the viewability of an ad is tied to somewhat unpredictable user browsing behavior specific to each individual domain they visit, it is impossible to predict ahead of time whether an ad will be viewable with 100% accuracy.

5. Average viewability is low across all inventory sources. According to Industry standard reporting, 69.2% of direct inventory and 63.1% of programmatic inventory is in-view. Similarly, DoubleVerify released Q1 2015 numbers stating that 49% of direct publisher inventory, 43% of ad networks, and 37% of RTB inventory is in-view. Programmatic partners have to make trade-offs between scale, performance, and viewability. Setting a high threshold will restrict inventory, sometimes at the detriment to reach and efficiency.

6.  Viewability is rarely used as a stand-alone metric, but instead, as part of a multi-faceted performance approach. However, viewability is based on somewhat unpredictable user browsing behavior specific to each individual domain they visit. That means it is easy to inadvertently optimize away from quality sites that would otherwise give a good return on investment (ROI). Therefore, if a campaign is performing efficiently, it’s better to look at viewability as a secondary metric.

Quantcast Viewability Solution

Viewability Optimization. The Quantcast Platform allows users to define the target viewability for each ad set. Based on the defined target, our model optimizes viewability in real-time based on historically measured impression data from the last month.

Note: Campaigns with premium viewability goals may require increased budgets because highly viewable inventory commands a higher price. 

IAS, a third-party viewability partner, provides Quantcast's viewability reporting.  Additionally, Quantcast Creative supports all Media Ratings Council (MRC) accredited vendors and the most commonly used industry viewability solutions. 

To help maximize your viewability-enabled campaign performance:

• Use an MRC Accredited Viewability Vendor. If you measure viewability, accreditation is an indicator of accuracy.

• Ask your attribution vendor if it can filter non-viewable impressions. Understanding a viewability-enabled campaign’s true performance requires an attribution system that tracks whether an impression was in view.

Keep viewability goals consistent across comparable campaigns. Without a consistent viewability-enabled attribution system, a campaign that avoids low-viewability and last-view impressions will suffer a perceived performance penalty when measured against a campaign that does not.